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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Eclipse Expects Fed Blessing
By Andrew Webb
Copyright © 2006 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer
Eclipse Aviation expects full Federal Aviation Administration certification of its twin-engine jet within the next two weeks, president and CEO Vern Raburn said Tuesday.
The company, which received provisional certification from the FAA in late July, had expected full certification of the $1.5 million Eclipse 500 by today.
Since July, the company has been working on a handful of "IOUs" with the FAA, including the design and installation of new aluminum wingtip fuel tanks to replace composite tanks that failed a lightning test. The FAA still needs to complete testing of the Avio avionics system from Eclipse supplier Avidyne, which Raburn has said faced software development delays.
"We're done except for one last thing," Raburn said.
Upon full certification, customer delivery will begin "almost immediately," he said.
A few customer planes are already built and are undergoing flight testing, while construction is beginning on another run of light jets, he said.
The full certification will allow functionality "within the Eclipse 500's full operating envelope," Eclipse spokesman Andrew Broom said.
That means the plane will be certified for single-pilot flight using instruments or visual flight rules, during the day and night, to the highest and lowest speeds and to the plane's maximum altitude of 41,000 feet.
"There will be no operational limitations," Broom said.
Additional avionics functionality, such as GPS, weather radar and other systems will be added in the next six months to a year and retrofitted in jets that have already been delivered.
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