The End of Eclipse

[Tom Goodrick]

Check the news stands in the next few days for the March issue of FLYING magazine. J Mac McClellan, the Editor, has a good article summing up the situation with Eclipse Aviation. It's all over.

The effect of this debacle will be felt in aviation for many years. Millions of dollars that could have spurred development of more reasonable new aircraft were dumped down a hole. Any new aircraft will now be viewed with extreme skepticism - much more than should have been needed to see the flaws in the Eclipse. It may even have adversely influenced FAA development of ATC procedures for years to come. These procedures were intended to handle the thousands of new jets piloted by relatively inexperienced pilots. Now the flights of experienced private pilots may be restricted based on the fantasies of the Eclipse promotors.

It is a shame in many ways. People who actually own their Eclipse jets cannot fly them without having key changes made to them to meet certification standards and it looks like no one will be available to make those changes.

[Joe]

Didn't the doctor who writes for FLYING (Dick Karl or something?) order one of those?

The March '09 issue may be one of my favorites of all time because of Lane Wallace's three U2 articles (including her usual monthly column).

[flaminghotsauce]

I think he put a deposit down on a Mustang jet, but then rescinded.

I have the magazine, but have not read that article about Eclipse.

[Tom Goodrick]

Dick Karl did put a deposit on the Cessna Mustang but cancelled it and got his money back. He has considered single-engine turboprops but his twin Cheyenne still looks good to him. The fuel prices have moderated. For a while it was cheaper for him to fly commercial.

The main difficulty with the Eclipse was range. It did not reach the promised spec for range. Then there was a crash that caused some concern. I never heard how that came out.

[Allan_Lowson]

I'm sure that I read somewhere that European purchasers of the Eclipse were going to have to have retrofits to the avionics to meet required standards.

There was an article in Flight International on the Embraer Phenom 100, which is available from their website at www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/02/09/322207/phenom-100-flight-test-building-on-a-legacy.html

- or go to www.flightglobal.com and search for Phenom 100. By the way if you go into the archive you can lose weeks trawling through every page of Flight International from 1909-2005. I frequently lose entire lunchhours that way.

Anyway, the point of the flight-test reference is that Embraer have re-positioned the aircraft from a VLJ to an "entry level bizjet". Which suggests a lack of faith in a new market taking off in the post sub-prime and collateralised debt obligations economic crash. They also talk about bio-range, to quote:

"While the Eclipse 500 planted the seed for its smallest executive jet, Embraer benchmarked larger and more capable aircraft such as Cessna's CJ1+ to guide the 100's definition. Market forces would dictate an aircraft with an absolute range capability on a par with segment leaders, but Embraer also embraced a concept it calls "bio-range".

Bio-range means designing an aircraft that four passengers would want to ride in for nearly 3h. Central to this is a large cabin. Most fuselages have a circular cross-section, but for the Phenom, Embraer designed an oval fuselage it calls Oval-Lite. This provides more usable room. The class leading cabin's space is further accentuated by eight large windows. Since pulling over for a bathroom break can be problematic at FL410, a chemical toilet lavatory is at the aft end of the cabin."

Quite.

I have to admit to being a trifle concerned with the prospect of droves of pilots who were used to the relatively simple operational envelope of piston-powered aircraft having to remember just how critical fuel flow and cruising altitude are to the range of jets.

I think the topic of accidents caused by pilots running out of fuel has already arisen here, and the signs are that the Turkish Airlines 737 crash in Holland may be another. We should hear initial details about that in the coming week, so I won't comment further.

Oh, and of course there is a Phenom 100 (and 300) which has just appeared on flightsim from Monsieur Camil.

[flaminghotsauce]

Oh, and of course there is a Phenom 100 (and 300) which has just appeared on flightsim from Monsieur Camil.

Downloaded the 300 version for FS9. Love it. It's very, um, simple, inside, but everything one needs is there. Plenty of dash space to add custom gauges, even.