It's PARTY time at Eclipse Aviation!

At 10:16 a.m. (MST) Friday, 12/31/04, aircraft N503EA, powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) PW610F turbofan engines, took off from the Albuquerque International Sunport for its maiden flight, which lasted one hour and 29 minutes. After a thorough inspection by flight test engineers, N503EA was cleared and departed again at 3:59 p.m. for its second flight of the day. The second flight lasted 54 minutes. The aircraft successfully completed all maneuvers in the test area during the flights. The Eclipse 500 is the first very light jet (VLJ) to fly with an FAA conforming configuration.

Eclipse Aviation president and CEO Vern Raburn congratulated the test pilots, and thanked the Eclipse employees and partners that worked tirelessly to achieve this important milestone. "This is a very important day for aviation and the VLJ market we pioneered. We are the first manufacturer to fly an FAA conforming VLJ and we are destined to be the first to certify and deliver this new breed of jet into customers' hands."

Raburn continued. "As we promised on January 31, 2003, we have resumed flight testing by December 31, 2004, with the PW610F engines. This is a credit to our team, and also to our engine partner Pratt & Whitney Canada, which has created an excellent powerplant for the VLJ market."

N503EA was piloted by tests pilots Bill Bubb and Brian Mathy. The pilots climbed the aircraft to 16,800 feet and reached 200 knots during the first day of flight tests, while completing all scheduled test points to test basic maneuverability and various aircraft systems.

N503EA is fully equipped with mechanical systems including pressurization, climate control and ice protection as well as with the Avio Total Aircraft Integration system. The flights were conducted in a designated test zone located south of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Eclipse's unprecedented state-of-the-art telemetry and data acquisition system was used to monitor today's flights, allowing the collection of more than four gigabytes of data per flight hour. Engineers in a ground station will have the ability to monitor more than 2,000 aircraft parameters in real time, analyzing rich information about systems, structures, aircraft handling and performance. It was this advanced analytics system, combined with N503EA's exceptional performance in its first flight, that enabled Eclipse to clear the jet for today's second flight. This accomplishment is notable, as most general aviation programs do not have access to real-time data and require days between flights for performance analysis.

The maiden flight of N503EA occurred on schedule, initiating a 15-month testing program that involves seven test airframes, more than 3,000 flight hours and several hundred hours of ground testing. Eclipse estimates that the Eclipse 500 flight test program will accumulate two to three times more total hours that traditional general aviation aircraft programs, allowing the aircraft to achieve a higher level of reliability prior to first customer deliveries. The flight test program will culminate with FAA certification in March 2006, with first customer deliveries shortly thereafter.

"Our customers are really going to enjoy this aircraft, especially because of the power and reliability of the Pratt & Whitney Canada engines and the docile handling characteristics. N503EA flew exactly as predicted and simulated in the company engineering simulator," said Dr. Oliver Masefield, Eclipse Aviation senior fellow. "It continues to be a privilege to be part of this progressive and history-making aviation program."

Eclipse 500 Certification Program Takes Off
These initial flights of N503EA mark the start of the Eclipse 500 FAA certification flight test program. In preparation for a comprehensive and efficient certification process, Eclipse has been working closely with the FAA since the inception of the Eclipse 500 program. Prior to the resumption of Eclipse 500 flight testing, Eclipse devoted significant resources to test systems at the component levels.

This proactive approach has enabled Eclipse to finalize more than of one quarter of all required FAA certification work including:

FAA agreement on approximately three quarters of the compliance methods for the Eclipse 500 certification program FAA approval of systems safety methodologies, including aircraft and systems functional hazard assessments and systems criticality assessment. The completion of FAA component level compliance testing on many of the systems, including the oxygen system, throttle quadrant and brakes. The completion of a significant portion of the required FAA testing of the Eclipse 500 fuel system, landing gear, electrical power distribution system and climate control system

Eclipse 500 Test Aircraft Fleet
Eclipse flew its first aircraft, N500EA, for the first time in August 2002 that was subsequently retired in October 2003 after completing a highly successful flight test program. Since then, Eclipse has been manufacturing an additional seven preproduction aircraft: one static test airframe, one fatigue test airframe and five additional flight testing aircraft.

Below is a breakdown:

N500EA - (retired) completed aerodynamic and systems validation flight testing
N502EA - FAA certification flight test, focus on aerodynamics and structures
N503EA - FAA certification flight test, focus on mechanical systems and powerplant
N504EA - FAA certification flight test, focus on avionics and electronics
N505EA and N506EA - beta test aircraft, accelerated usage testing


Earlier this year, Eclipse announced a change in the manufacturing order for two aircraft, where N503EA would be manufactured and flown prior to N502EA.  link