Eclipse Aviation News
Press Contact:
Eclipse Unveils Product Support Plan for Eclipse 500 Jet
Company announces commitment to deliver factory-direct customer support; releases white paper on Eclipse 500 reliability and maintainability
LAS VEGAS, NV - October 11, 2004 - Eclipse Aviation today announced its first U.S. Factory Service Center location outside of its Albuquerque headquarters and outlined its customer support plan for the Eclipse 500 twin-engine jet. The company also released a white paper, “Reliability and Maintainability Design of the Eclipse 500 Jet for High Utilization Applications,” that explains how the Eclipse 500 aircraft design will increase aircraft reliability and reduce aircraft downtime for both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance.
“At Eclipse, we have always understood that building a high-performance aircraft is just the first step towards success,” said Vern Raburn, President and CEO of Eclipse. “We will apply Eclipse's value philosophy ? a better product at a lower cost ? across all aspects of aircraft ownership, including customer support.”
At the heart of the plan is Eclipse's deep service and support commitment to the Eclipse 500 aircraft and complete customer satisfaction. A network of seven U.S. Factory Service Centers will be dedicated to Eclipse 500 maintenance. The first two centers will open in 2006, and will be located at Eclipse's Albuquerque, NM headquarters and at the Gainesville, FL Airport, pending necessary city and state approvals.
By 2008, an Eclipse Service Center will be within a 1.5 hour flight for virtually all customers in the lower 48 states. In addition, at the first aircraft delivery in 2006, a team of Eclipse customer service and technical representatives will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They will be backed up by an Eclipse 500 aircraft dedicated solely to Aircraft-on-Ground (AOG) problem resolution, which will be available around-the-clock to quickly deliver the parts and technicians needed to guarantee the highest levels of customer satisfaction.
VP of Sales and Customer Support, Mike McConnell explains, “By maintaining a direct and continuous relationship with our customers after they take delivery of their aircraft, we can demonstrate our commitment to customer satisfaction. This allows the Eclipse value proposition to extend far beyond the incredible purchase price of the airplane.”
Further enhancing its Eclipse 500 support offering, Eclipse has developed an Authorized Repair Technician program that allows customers to use their own mechanics for maintenance and repair operations upon completion of Eclipse's Maintenance Training program. This includes the submission of warranty claims. Under this program, corporate and fleet customers can maintain their Eclipse 500 aircraft at their own facilities, and owner-operator customers can appoint a mechanic close to home, if they prefer.
Eclipse 500 Raises the Bar in Design for Reliability and Maintainability
Today Eclipse also released a white paper, “Reliability and Maintainability Design of the Eclipse 500 Jet for High Utilization Applications,” that discloses for the first time how the Eclipse 500 delivers higher levels of reliability and maintainability than traditional business jets. The Eclipse 500 was designed from the outset to meet the high-reliability demands of air taxi operations that may exceed 2,000 flight hours per year. To address these requirements, Eclipse applied state-of-the-art Maintenance Steering Group (MSG-3) maintenance principles.
“High-utilization operators, especially air taxi companies, demand an extremely high level of dispatch reliability to meet their operational requirements,” said Raburn. “Most business jets were never intended for this use, but meeting these requirements was a critical element of our design criteria from the beginning. The Eclipse 500's resulting unprecedented level of reliability and maintainability will benefit all customers, whether they fly 2,000 hours per year or 200.”
Key design criteria for Eclipse 500 reliability includes:
-Eliminate typically maintenance-intensive systems, such as high pressure hydraulic system and thrust reversers
-Simplify aircraft systems by replacing numerous separate parts with integrated systems, particularly in avionics and systems management
-Utilize long-life, environmentally-sealed parts such as brushless motors, proximity switches, LED lighting, smart actuators and electronic circuit breakers; there are only half a dozen life-limited components on the Eclipse 500
-Utilize the benign, temperature-controlled and pressurized cabin environment to locate avionics and electrical components, including the FADECs
The first scheduled maintenance event (other than day-to-day preflight maintenance) is planned (subject to FAA approval) for every 300 hours, or two years. More comprehensive and subsequent maintenance intervals are planned for every 1,200 hours and at 10,000 total hours. A phased inspection option will be available to minimize scheduled downtime for those operating at high-utilization rates.
Key design criteria for maintainability includes:
- Access panels strategically located to facilitate quick access to all major components
- Components designed for fast removal/replacement:
- A single windshield can be replaced in under six man hours, compared to one hundred and fifty man hours on a Cessna CJ1
- Line replaceable units (LRU) system components dramatically reduce time-intensive and highly- variable mechanic troubleshooting
- Continuous automatic aircraft health monitoring, built-in self-diagnostics and sophisticated mechanics' diagnostic software to save time, reduce misdiagnoses and virtually eliminate intermittent and no-fault-found conditions
- High-precision manufacturing methods and extremely accurate tooling to produce close tolerance and consistent part fittings. This enables parts interchangeability and significantly decreases time-intensive fitting and rigging requirements.
“At Eclipse, we have always understood that building a high-performance aircraft is just the first step towards success,” said Vern Raburn, President and CEO of Eclipse. “We will apply Eclipse's value philosophy ? a better product at a lower cost ? across all aspects of aircraft ownership, including customer support.”
At the heart of the plan is Eclipse's deep service and support commitment to the Eclipse 500 aircraft and complete customer satisfaction. A network of seven U.S. Factory Service Centers will be dedicated to Eclipse 500 maintenance. The first two centers will open in 2006, and will be located at Eclipse's Albuquerque, NM headquarters and at the Gainesville, FL Airport, pending necessary city and state approvals.
By 2008, an Eclipse Service Center will be within a 1.5 hour flight for virtually all customers in the lower 48 states. In addition, at the first aircraft delivery in 2006, a team of Eclipse customer service and technical representatives will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They will be backed up by an Eclipse 500 aircraft dedicated solely to Aircraft-on-Ground (AOG) problem resolution, which will be available around-the-clock to quickly deliver the parts and technicians needed to guarantee the highest levels of customer satisfaction.
VP of Sales and Customer Support, Mike McConnell explains, “By maintaining a direct and continuous relationship with our customers after they take delivery of their aircraft, we can demonstrate our commitment to customer satisfaction. This allows the Eclipse value proposition to extend far beyond the incredible purchase price of the airplane.”
Further enhancing its Eclipse 500 support offering, Eclipse has developed an Authorized Repair Technician program that allows customers to use their own mechanics for maintenance and repair operations upon completion of Eclipse's Maintenance Training program. This includes the submission of warranty claims. Under this program, corporate and fleet customers can maintain their Eclipse 500 aircraft at their own facilities, and owner-operator customers can appoint a mechanic close to home, if they prefer.
Eclipse 500 Raises the Bar in Design for Reliability and Maintainability
Today Eclipse also released a white paper, “Reliability and Maintainability Design of the Eclipse 500 Jet for High Utilization Applications,” that discloses for the first time how the Eclipse 500 delivers higher levels of reliability and maintainability than traditional business jets. The Eclipse 500 was designed from the outset to meet the high-reliability demands of air taxi operations that may exceed 2,000 flight hours per year. To address these requirements, Eclipse applied state-of-the-art Maintenance Steering Group (MSG-3) maintenance principles.
“High-utilization operators, especially air taxi companies, demand an extremely high level of dispatch reliability to meet their operational requirements,” said Raburn. “Most business jets were never intended for this use, but meeting these requirements was a critical element of our design criteria from the beginning. The Eclipse 500's resulting unprecedented level of reliability and maintainability will benefit all customers, whether they fly 2,000 hours per year or 200.”
Key design criteria for Eclipse 500 reliability includes:
-Eliminate typically maintenance-intensive systems, such as high pressure hydraulic system and thrust reversers
-Simplify aircraft systems by replacing numerous separate parts with integrated systems, particularly in avionics and systems management
-Utilize long-life, environmentally-sealed parts such as brushless motors, proximity switches, LED lighting, smart actuators and electronic circuit breakers; there are only half a dozen life-limited components on the Eclipse 500
-Utilize the benign, temperature-controlled and pressurized cabin environment to locate avionics and electrical components, including the FADECs
The first scheduled maintenance event (other than day-to-day preflight maintenance) is planned (subject to FAA approval) for every 300 hours, or two years. More comprehensive and subsequent maintenance intervals are planned for every 1,200 hours and at 10,000 total hours. A phased inspection option will be available to minimize scheduled downtime for those operating at high-utilization rates.
Key design criteria for maintainability includes:
- Access panels strategically located to facilitate quick access to all major components
- Components designed for fast removal/replacement:
- A single windshield can be replaced in under six man hours, compared to one hundred and fifty man hours on a Cessna CJ1
- Line replaceable units (LRU) system components dramatically reduce time-intensive and highly- variable mechanic troubleshooting
- Continuous automatic aircraft health monitoring, built-in self-diagnostics and sophisticated mechanics' diagnostic software to save time, reduce misdiagnoses and virtually eliminate intermittent and no-fault-found conditions
- High-precision manufacturing methods and extremely accurate tooling to produce close tolerance and consistent part fittings. This enables parts interchangeability and significantly decreases time-intensive fitting and rigging requirements.
About Eclipse:
Eclipse Aviation is in the business of designing, certifying and producing modern, affordable jet aircraft that will revolutionize the transportation market. The company is applying advanced electronics systems, manufacturing and business practices to produce aircraft that cost less than a quarter of today's small jet aircraft, will be significantly safer and easier to operate than those of today, and have the lowest cost of ownership ever achieved in a jet aircraft.
The goal of Eclipse is to bring the word "personal" into aviation, making it possible for commercial air passengers to move directly between cities on a quick, affordable and convenient basis. It will also allow pilot owners to enter the world of jet-powered aviation.