The good news in the new very light jet (VLJ) category is that the Eclipse 500 is still alive and kicking. Its more conventionally priced rival, the Cessna Mustang, is moving through development on schedule. Elsewhere, the picture looks more grim.
Eclipse's irrepressible CEO, Vern Raburn, threw down the gauntlet in March by announcing a commitment to "transparency." Eclipse would henceforth post its development schedule and forthcoming milestone events on its website, and Raburn challenged other VLJ builders to do the same. For instance, according to the site, the friction-stir-welded parts for the first Pratt & Whitney-powered Eclipse should be complete on Aug. 6, and the first training module for the home-study training course was released two days late on July 1.
The PW610F engine for the Eclipse made its first run in May, and the first Eclipse with the new engine should fly on New Year's Eve, marking the start of the certification flight-test program. Within the past year, Eclipse has announced strategic partnerships with Fuji Aerospace, which will build the Eclipse wing; Enaer of Chile, which will provide the nose section, and a team of avionics suppliers, including Meggitt and Hispano-Suiza, which will provided components for Eclipse's radical Avio architecture. The price of the new airplane is still set at $1.175 million in year 2000 dollars, and Raburn says that few of the over-2,000 orders that the company claimed in 2002 have gone away. Certification is due at the beginning of 2006.
The slightly more powerful and much more expensive ($2.3 million) Cessna Citation Mustang is due to reach customers in late 2006. It is also powered by Pratt & Whitney - its PW615F engine made its first flight on a Citation test bed at the end of April. Wind-tunnel tests have been completed, and Cessna has selected the Garmin G1000 integrated avionics suite for the aircraft.
Since early 2003, Adam Aircraft has claimed that it will be first to market with a light jet, by modifying its push-pull, twin-piston A500 into the A700 with two Williams FJ33 engines. In May, Adam announced a 75-airplane order for the A700 from a new-start company headed by former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall.
Not all has gone smoothly with Adam. A year ago, when the A700 flew, Adam expected to deliver the first aircraft this year. The company still says that it will deliver the A700 in early 2005, but so far, it has yet to certificate the basic A500 or fly a conforming A700.
Even less happy news comes from the Avocet ProJet, unveiled last August
as an up-sized Eclipse, to be designed and built by Israel Aircraft
Industries for the air-limousine market. Avocet said in September
that it expected to select an engine, pick avionics contractors
and sign a development contract with IAI by the end of the year,
none of which happened. In April, CEO David Tait was quoted as predicting
that Avocet and IAI would sign a contract within weeks. By the end
of the month there was no contract and Tait was gone. New CEO Mark
Biagetti says that the company is "continuing to make progress,
although we're not discussing it publicly."
