Eclipse Aviation News

Eclipse Aviation, manufacturer of the world’s first very light jet (VLJ), today announced its European debut for the Eclipse 500. This is the first time Eclipse Aviation has taken its twinengine jet outside of North America. The aircraft left its headquarters in Albuquerque, NM on April 14, 2007, flew the North Atlantic route through Canada, Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom, and landed in Friedrichshafen, Germany for the AERO 2007 show.

“Europe is such a great market for the Eclipse 500 because of its superior performance and efficiency to anything else offered today,” said Andrew Broom, director of public relations at Eclipse Aviation. “The Eclipse 500 offers a quicker and more convenient way to travel. We already have more than 100 orders throughout this market, and we believe that once people in Europe and the UK see it and fly it, we can change the way they travel.”

In April and May, the Eclipse 500 will travel to several countries while attending trade shows and completing sales demo flights. Many potential customers in Europe will be able to experience the Eclipse 500 capabilities firsthand. The aircraft will be on display at the AERO show in Friedrichshafen, Germany for the remainder of the week before flying to Cannes, France for EUR-AVIA on April 27, and then to Geneva, Switzerland on May 22, for the European Business Aviation Conference and Exposition (EBACE).

With a range of 1,125 nautical miles, the Eclipse 500 very light jet can easily make trips from London to Warsaw, Oslo to Milan, and Madrid to Moscow. The aircraft’s performance combined with low direct operating costs make it economical for European business and leisure travelers to visit multiple other cities and countries in a single-day. In addition to benefiting from jet performance at an unprecedented cost, the European customer will also appreciate that the Eclipse 500 is the quietest turbine powered aircraft and exceeds ICAO’s most stringent Stage 4 noise standard by more than 40 decibels (dB).

The noise testing proves that the Eclipse 500 is quieter than all multi engine and most single engine piston powered aircraft. Additional testing by Pratt & Whitney Canada shows that the Eclipse 500’s PW610F engines are setting a green engine benchmark by registering a smoke number (SN) of less than five, while the regulatory limit for engine smoke emissions is a SN of 50.

The Eclipse 500 received its full Type Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration on September 30, 2006. Eclipse Aviation is on a parallel track to receive its EASA certification, and expects to achieve full certification by the end of 2007.