Pilot Report

2 Business & Commercial Aviation ■ July 2005 www.AviationNow.com/BCA Eclipse 500 Program Update

We fly the first VLJ in production configuration during a break in the race to March 2006 certification.

Text by Fred George most of the engineering and development. gines. Raburn and his determined team eval- Photography by Phil Forbert Both would share the revenues from sales. uated alternative engine designs, such as the “In aviation, it’s always the engines that Agilis TF1000, Honda HF118, Honeywell have changed things. Sam’s company already LTF101 and Pratt & Whitney Canada had won NASA’s GAP [General Aviation PW600 in late 2002, and the following ight years ago, Vern Raburn, president Propulsion] contract. I liked this engine tech- February tapped P&WC to provide the and CEO of Albuquerque-based nology because it was a game changer. I saw PW610F — a 900-pound-thrust derivative EEclipse Aviation, made the biggest this as a really, really, really cool opportu- of the PW615F chosen to power Cessna’s gamble in light jet aviation since Bill Lear in- nity,” Raburn explained. Dr. Williams’ FJX Citation Mustang. Fuel capacity would be in- troduced the Learjet 23 in 1963. Raburn bet GAP engine evolved into the 770-pound- creased by adding small tiptanks. Eclipse also that folks would buy hundreds, if not thou- thrust EJ22 fanjet, intended to power what raised the price to nearly $1 million for ex- sands, of twin aircraft if they could would become the Eclipse 500. The isting customers. New orders were taken at be sold for less than $1 million. Best known Williams V-Jet II proof-of-concept aircraft $1.2 million. Type certification and initial outside aviation circles as a high-tech indus- was the inspiration for the Eclipse 500. The customer deliveries were rescheduled for first try entrepreneur, Raburn is a strong believer price was pegged at $837,500. quarter 2006. in price elasticity, a concept he claims is often The Eclipse 500, powered by Williams But the PW610F wouldn’t even be ready ignored in general aviation. The main lesson EJ22 engines, first flew on Aug. 26, 2002. It for flight test until late 2004. So, in May 2003, from the personal computer world is clear: was its last flight with those fanjets, as well. Eclipse resumed flight tests with a pair of Offer more value and drive down price, and Ongoing problems with the EJ22, according “interim” Teledyne Continental model 382- you’ll wear out a lot of ballpoint pens sign- to Raburn, forced Eclipse to drop the 10E cruise missile engines mounted on its ing sales contracts. Williams engine by year’s end. aircraft. This enabled Eclipse to continue Raburn’s vision was shared by Dr. Sam Some folks thought that was the end of the aerodynamic development of the airframe, Williams, chairman of Williams Intern- Eclipse 500 program, but they soon came to even including leading edge ice shapes, pend- ational, who dreamed of reinvigorating gen- realize that the airplane was powered more ing the arrival of its new Pratts. eral aviation by developing a new generation by Raburn’s passion than by Williams’ en- Always pressing the limits of technology, of affordable turbofan engines. Both men felt Raburn planned to fit the PW610Fs with that there was nothing wrong with the gen- brushless AC starter/generators that would eral aviation market that breakthrough air- have several times the TBO of conventional planes at lower prices couldn’t cure. Lear had DC starter/generators with brushes. priced his light jet at $495,000 in 1963 dol- Potentially, this would lower operating costs lars, a fraction of what contemporary jets cost and increase dispatch reliability. at the time. Raburn and Williams both Nice try, but no go. The vendor couldn’t dreamed of selling a new generation of jet develop the electronics needed to support the aircraft for not much more in mid-1990s dol- start function of the brushless units on time, lars — millions less than the least expensive so Eclipse had to fashion its own monstrous entry level jet at the time. kluge kit, mounted in the cabin, in time to As always in aviation, the pacing item get the engines started for the first flight in would be propulsion. Williams believed he fourth quarter 2004. Not unexpectedly, there could build and sell light turbofan engines for were several fits and starts as Eclipse’s engi- as little as $50,000 in volume production. neers struggled with the starter electronics. Raburn immediately was hooked on the con- Predictably, Eclipse reverted to conventional cept, so he joined forces with Williams to de- DC starter/generators for its subsequent velop a radical new (VLJ) flight test and production aircraft. powered by Williams’ revolutionary turbofan Compounding the start problems, Eclipse engines. Raburn would raise most of the cap- also had numerous problems with the ital for the program. Williams would supply Vern Raburn, Eclipse president and CEO Hispano-Suiza FADEC and some growing

www.AviationNow.com/BCA Business & Commercial Aviation ■ July 2005 3 Pilot Report

Raburn believes that composites are too Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F much of an unknown commodity in the avi- The Eclipse’s PW610F engines are FADEC-equipped for easy operation and rugged for ation community regarding such issues and low operating cost. At entry-into-service in 2006, they’ll have a 1,750 HSI midlife in- that composite construction isn’t well suited to high-volume production. Still, he has high spection interval and a 3,500-hour TBO. Projected overall cost is about $150,000 per hopes for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner as a com- engine, according to Eclipse officials. posite pioneer. Having a thermodynamic rating of 1,112 pounds of thrust, they’re flat-rated to 900 Old aluminum construction methods, pounds of thrust for takeoff aboard the Eclipse 500 and capable of 990 pounds of thrust however, are expensive since it can take from in APR. The engines feature a 14-inch, one-piece, integrally bladed fan and deep-fluted ex- 4,000 to 5,000 labor hours to build a light jet haust mixer nozzle for improved high-altitude performance and lower FAR Part 36 noise airframe. Raburn knew he would have to levels. P&WC isn’t using any exotic materials inside and the engine will have modest a slash those hours to keep his price low. pressure ratio by today’s standards. The result is lower overall operating costs. Accordingly, Eclipse employs high-speed P&WC is having plenty of success with the 1,000- to CNC milling and friction stir welding 3,000-pound-thrust PW600 series, all of which Similar to CNC milling processes used by Bombardier, Dassault and Raytheon to fab- will be FADEC-equipped. Cessna has se- ricate their latest aircraft, Eclipse is the first lected the PW615F for its aircraft manufacturer to use such techniques Citation Mustang and to build a VLJ. Wing spars, chord-wise Embraer tapped the frames and bulkheads, among many other PW617F for its newly major airframe components, begin life as announced VLJ. P&WC large billets of aluminum fed to CNC mills is banking on the that remove 90 to 95 percent of the mass to PW600 to be a large transform them into complex shaped parts. production volume en- CNC milling makes possible construction of gine, rivaling the success one-piece components that replace built-up assemblies of dozens of parts joined by hun- of the PT6A turboprop in the dreds, if not thousands, of fasteners. last century. Unlike Bombardier and Dassault that have extensive in-house manufacturing cen- ters, Eclipse won’t do any heavy construc- pains with the PW610F. Hispano-Suiza re- nologies embodied in the 500. Raburn often tion or machining at its assembly plant at mains one of Eclipse’s problem vendors, ac- has said that the aviation industry is so risk Albuquerque International Sunport. cording to Raburn, but he cannot say enough averse that technological progress is painfully Instead, the company farms out processes good things about product support from slow, manufacturing costs are among the like CNC milling to other firms, such as Pratt & Whitney Canada. highest of any industry, quality is marginal Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), Ducommon In mid-2004, Raburn invited B&CA to and reliability is low. This is why airplane AeroStructures, Compass Aerospace and witness the first flight in late November, prices are so high and they cost so much to Empresa Nacional de Aeronáutica in Chile. rescheduling several times until Dec. 31, operate, according to Raburn. These firms have high-speed CNC mills when at 10:16 a.m., the first flight of s.n. 1087, When Raburn embarked upon the Eclipse and manufacturing methods that can sup- the first Eclipse 500 in full production con- project, he “saw a technological convergence port high volume production of major figuration and powered by the PW610F, took that could change everything except aerody- subassemblies. place. We watched the entire first flight from namics.” It was time to abandon World War Friction stir welding (FSW), now used ex- inside Raburn’s Turbo Commander as he II aircraft manufacturing methods, he said, tensively in missile and marine construction, flew chase on the test aircraft. Both aircraft along with “Rosie the Riveter in her polka was invented by The Welding Institute at taxied into the compound dot hat whistling ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle University of Cambridge. It uses a spinning afterward, where Raburn led a celebration at- Boy.’” He saw, for example, the potential for mandrel that bears down on a lap joint hard tended by nearly 1,000 people. “We prom- high-speed CNC milling that could make in- enough to create friction heating that welds ised we’d fly the aircraft with its new engines tegrated one-piece parts. Watching au- the two pieces of material together without before the end of 2004 and we did. Eclipse is tomakers and computer manufacturers imparting enough heat to liquefy the metal. back. Eclipse is here to stay. And Eclipse is streamline their fabrication processes, he was The rotating tool bit translates along the lap going forward,” Raburn beamed. inspired to try new methods to produce air- joint to create a continuous weld that’s Eclipse flight test pilots had completed a craft that “could reinvigorate existing mar- stronger than a string of mechanical fasten- second test flight by late afternoon. At the kets and create all-new ones.” ers. FSW is at least as strong as structural ad- end of the day, as the bubbly started flowing, So, Eclipse embraced new technologies hesive bonding, but the resulting joint Raburn promised B&CA we’d be flying the and new general aviation suppliers since its weighs much less, is considerably faster to aircraft by May 2005. He kept his promise, inception, even if they didn’t have a proven fabricate and should cost less in high-vol- as we’ve described in the First Flying track record in civil aviation. But Raburn ume production. Impressions section of this report. wasn’t ready to buy off on composites. In Prior to the Eclipse 500 development pro- contrast to the V-Jet II, the Eclipse 500’s pri- gram, FSW never had been approved as a Breakthrough Technologies — mary structure would be all-aluminum be- process for civil aircraft construction. Seeing Sharp, Doubled-Edged Swords cause the aviation industry has upwards of 85 the promise of greatly reduced construction Revolutionary new engines and starters are years’ design, fabrication, repair and fatigue costs, Eclipse developed FSW for aircraft but two of the potential breakthrough tech- experience with the material. By comparison fabrication and earned FAA approval for us-

4 Business & Commercial Aviation ■ July 2005 www.AviationNow.com/BCA The one-piece main spar carry-through structure (left) and the “banjo” (right), the integrated aft tailcone bulkhead/vertical tail main spar, are milled out of massive blocks of aluminum by high-speed CNC milling machines. This is emblematic of how Eclipse is wringing out thousands of assembly hours from the EA 500 production line. ing FSW in the primary airframe structure, “We always assume a partner can live up Technicalities aside, we wanted to know including fuselage and wings. Eclipse in- to its promises, until it proves otherwise,” how it flew. vested $20 million in FSW, spending about Raburn explained. Old school pundits might one-third for tooling and two-thirds for de- say this approach is overly optimistic and First Flying Impressions velopment. The payoff is the elimination of leads to program delays. Raburn, though, is Just after returning from EBACE 2005, we almost 7,400 fasteners and 1,000 assembly determined to achieve new standards for strapped into the left seat of s.n. 109, the third hours, according to Oliver Masefield, Ph.D., functionality, dependability and low operat- flight test aircraft and the one Eclipse will use the firm’s senior vice president and senior fel- ing cost. More changes are likely. Several primarily for and electric system cer- low. There are almost 442 linear feet of fric- suppliers have earned below average marks tification. Terry Tomeny, director of flight test tion stir welds in the aircraft’s pressure vessel, for inadequate ramp rate readiness for high- engineering, occupied the right seat as pilot wings and aft fuselage sections. volume production that is slated to begin in in command. The result is no more than 600 hours to 2007. They must grow production capacity Aircraft 109 first flew on April 21, 2005, and assemble the aircraft in Albuquerque, outside by at least 50 percent to meet Eclipse’s pro- had logged less than 15 hours when we took of paint work, according to Raburn, plus a duction targets. Eight of the 51 suppliers are the controls on the 18th and 20th missions. five-fold improvement in tolerance control. being watched closely, because of ramp rate As a result, many functions and systems were The goal is to produce each aircraft in deficiencies, process control problems or de- yet to be made fully operational. Flight oper- Albuquerque in 10 days, including one and velopment shortcomings. ations were limited to daylight VFR, the ceil- one-half days in production flight test and While supplier performance remains a ing was limited to 25,000 feet and there was a two in the painting process. concern, Raburn’s 425-person team in 230 KIAS speed restriction. We also could fly “We’re fanatical about driving out cycle Albuquerque is confident they can hold up it no slower than 82 KIAS pending flight en- time and increasing quality,” Raburn said. their end of the development schedule. velope expansion. “The single biggest cost in building a con- Weight control has become an obsession. The aircraft had most of the production in- ventional aircraft is overhead, including parts The aircraft was 110 pounds overweight, but terior panels installed, because fit, finish and inventory, manufacturing plant and the cost Eclipse had worked off 35 of those pounds durability of those parts are being evaluated of capital. We’ve modeled Eclipse on the best by early June. While suppliers and staff re- during the flight test program, along with the Japanese lean practices. There, the synonym main under the gun to reduce weight further, green airplane. Serial number 109 also had for ‘lean’ is ‘continuous improvement.’” Raburn said, “We’re pretty comfortable we’ll the usual array of orange test equipment in Raburn admits that Eclipse has had to fire be able to make our [projected] performance the main cabin, bolted down through the car- more than a few partners whom he felt and range numbers.” peting to the seat rails. Telemetry equipment couldn’t perform up to snuff. BAe Systems, Interior design, maintenance access and aboard the aircraft transmitted hundreds of for example, was slated to supply the autopi- weight control also are top priorities during channels of data to the Eclipse flight test de- lot. Now it’s Meggitt. Metalcraft the development process. The entire interior partment, enabling engineers on the ground Technologies was going to build most of the is designed to be removed and replaced in two to monitor the aircraft’s engines, systems and fuselage. Now, Ducommon and Compass to three hours. All scheduled maintenance flight controls during our flights. We were will supply major subassemblies that will be operations, including engine changes, are be- outside line-of-sight telemetry range during completed in-house by Eclipse. Cal-Draulics ing designed to be accomplished in a single portions of our test flights, so we don’t have was tapped to build the landing gear, but now eight-hour shift. Fly all day and fix at night is precise data for all phases of the two evalua- it’s Mecaer’s job. Exterior lighting was to be how Eclipse is running its flight test program. tion missions. furnished by Devore Aviation. LSI now will The object is to perfect routine maintenance The aircraft’s empty operating weight was supply the LED position, beacon and strobe processes for customers, as much as maximize 3,693 pounds, which was at least 300 pounds lights, plus HID landing lights. aircraft availability for flight test. heavier than a production aircraft fitted with

www.AviationNow.com/BCA Business & Commercial Aviation ■ July 2005 5 Pilot Report

main cabin. Cabin interior shape, though smaller, feels a little like a Piaggio P180 Avanti — relatively tight up front and roomy in the midsection. The throttle position in the short center console requires an unsupported reach. Production aircraft will have crew seat arm- rests, in addition to passenger chair armrests, providing a place to rest one’s forearm behind the throttles. The Eclipse 500 promises to be the easiest to fly twin-engine aircraft yet built, piston or turbine, because of its docile flying character- istics and systems automation. This starts with its AVIO Total Aircraft Integration system, a design that goes far beyond conventional avionics integration. AVIO connects with vir- tually every system on the aircraft, including the engines, avionics, dual zone climate con- trol, pressurization and electrical components. Production aircraft wings will be built by Fuji Heavy Industries. The interior structure has very few parts When fully developed, it will have interactive outside of the one-piece main- and aft-wing spars and a dozen or so one-piece chord-wise ribs all pro- normal checklists and abnormal/emergency duced by high-speed CNC mills. checklists that are automatically called up in the LX upgraded interior, thicker insulation craft that have conventional control wheel response to system malfunctions. and optional sixth seat. Our two-crew controls and long center consoles. Plan on AVIO can be compared to Dassault’s EASy arrangement raised the zero fuel weight to flying with a knee board, if there’s someone cockpit, although perhaps it’s even more in- 4,058 pounds. With a full 1,507-pound fuel occupying the right front seat. Chart and nav tegrated with aircraft systems. Both AVIO load, the ramp weight was 5,565 pounds, ac- publications storage volume is limited with- and EASy take some time to master because cording to Eclipse’s engineering flight test out the availability of the right front seat they’re essentially required crewmembers, al- department. cushion as an ersatz chart table. beit digital entities, on the flight deck. Both Serial number 109’s instrument panel was Long-legged pilots may find it necessary systems feature interactive system synoptics very clean, perhaps too clean. Eclipse still is to move the rudder pedals aft and position that are used to control functions, as well as waiting for Luminescent Systems, Inc., a unit the crew seat well aft to avoid interference monitor them. Once a pilot masters AVIO, of Astronics, to deliver the glareshield DFCS between the side stick and outboard knee. the rest of the aircraft will be as easy as a light and center console control panels and for Still, the forward section of the fuselage piston twin, but without the hassles of cater- Avidyne to deliver the audio control panels. curves inward toward the nose, so room in ing to and caring for finicky recip engines, At this stage in program development, most the cockpit isn’t nearly as generous as in the and with virtually no asymmetric thrust. of the technical risk is associated with ven- Notably, the aircraft will have better one-en- dor delays rather than airframe development, gine-inoperative takeoff performance than according to Eclipse officials. most FAR Part 23 twin turboprops, but Outside visibility from the cockpit is some- VMCA will be considerably lower than stall what restricted compared to some other light speed in any configuration. jets. The windshield is steeply raked and the Switch and knob position conventions are top of the instrument panel is relatively high. logical. When the switch blades are in the Lateral visibility through the side windows is down position, the function is off, open or not as good as in some other light jets. This is disabled. Up is for activation or normal in- not a problem when looking through the side flight mode. Knobs are positioned left for off, window closest to the pilot, but it’s noticeable 12 o’clock for normal and right for special or when looking through the cross-side window. abnormal functions. The LED nav lights However, a pilot can see out through the come on as soon as electrical power from any cross-side cabin windows, augmenting the source is switched on. The red LED beacons view available through the cockpit windows. and white LED strobes are controlled by a The position of the aircraft’s side stick con- single three-position switch with off, beacon trol is an almost perfect fit for the pilot’s nat- and beacon/strobe stops. ural hand position. It’s angled forward and Starting the aircraft consists of flicking up inward to match one’s hand position when five electrical panel switches, checking bat- the forearm is on an armrest. The grip has a tery or external power voltage and then trigger switch for press-to-talk, plus buttons pressing down and turning each engine con- for disconnect, gear warning horn trol knob from the nine o’clock to 12 o’clock mute, control wheel steering and all-inter- position. The on-side fuel boost pump auto- rupt for trim, autothrottle, autopilot and yaw matically operates, the starter spins up the The one-piece main spars are unusually stout for damper functions. The side stick and short a 5,650-pound MTOW aircraft. The Eclipse 500 engine and the FADEC handles all the other center console also make it easier to get in should sail through static and fatigue tests at chores. After start, the generator automati- and out of the cockpit, compared with air- South West Research Institute in San Antonio. cally comes on line in production aircraft and

6 Business & Commercial Aviation ■ July 2005 www.AviationNow.com/BCA the boost pump shuts off. Each engine’s FADEC automatically terminates the start in case of a malfunction. AVIO – The Next Step in Total Aircraft Integration Interior sound levels, even with the test Few aircraft in the world have more avionics and systems integration than the Eclipse. aircraft’s acoustical insulation package, were Most aircraft that boast this level of integration actually have federated systems, low. The engine inlets are well behind the aft collections of independent systems and avionics boxes that function like a union of pressure bulkhead and partially masked by independent member states. the fuselage midsection contours. Total fuel Not so with AVIO. This truly is a full integration of avionics using hub-and-spoke ar- flow at idle was 197 pph. chitecture between the core computers and virtually everything electrically powered Each of the PW610F , in current configuration, produces about 40 pounds of on the aircraft. AVIO’s dual computers replace dozens of stand-alone computers in- idle thrust. Once the aircraft is rolling, fre- stalled on other light jets. The core hub hosts FADECs, FMS, secondary flight controls, quent use of wheel brakes is needed to check autothrottle, digital flight control system and control of landing gear, pressurization taxi speed. An upcoming FADEC soft- and air-conditioning. ware revision should reduce ground idle AVIO will set new standards for light jet avionics performance. It will have a fully func- thrust to 25 pounds of thrust. That should tional FMS that supports all ARINC 424 procedures and airways navigation, full au- alleviate most of the need to use the brakes thority autothrottles, weight-and-balance and airport performance computers with during taxi and also reduce ground idle fuel automatic V speed bugging on the PFD. Comm and nav radio frequencies will be flow. stored in the FMS and popped into the standby windows of those radios at the touch Nosewheel steering authority during taxi of a button. The FMS will host a simplified advisory VNAV function and it will support through the rudder pedals is mushy at best, in B&CA’s opinion. We’d like to see pedal all types of WAAS approaches, including precision approach procedures. steering made crisper. Tight turns require The large central MFD will feature full EICAS, interactive normal, abnormal and liberal use of differential braking. The aft- emergency checklists, graphic system synoptics and system control functions. The mounted engines are spaced so closely to- final version will have single-level access to all menus, controlled by individual line se- gether that using differential thrust to tighten lect keys or knob controls. the turn is virtually ineffective. Dual aviation grade byte-flight data busses, as well as some conventional ARINC- Takeoff for our flights were spec links, are used as the communications spokes between components and AVIO’s padded by five to 10 knots, pending full ex- twin central computers. The system has extensive maintenance history and ex- pansion of the flight envelope. Rotation, for ceedance event logging capabilities. As an added benefit, AVIO’s total integration instance, was pegged at 94 KIAS and liftoff will result in lower manufacturing costs. was set for 100 KIAS. We set the fowler flaps to 10 degrees for takeoff, a position that With the exceptions of the manually operated primary flight controls and hydraulic causes them to move aft on their tracks by wheel brakes, every other system on the aircraft is electrically actuated. Left- and several inches, thereby increasing wing chord right-side engine-driven generators, plus forward and aft batteries, power all the elec- for substantially more lift. trical systems. Virtually all motors are long-wear DC brushless designs, except for the The OAT was 34°C, local altimeter was starter/generators. Stepper motors, slaved to the FADECs, schedule fuel flow to the 30.10 and Albuquerque’s field elevation is engines. 5,355 feet, so density altitude was close to What if both generators fail? Statistically, that’s mighty improbable based upon 8,375 feet. The hot-and-high field conditions over 40 years of operating history. But if that were to occur, there’s still sapped engine performance, but the PW610F at least 30 minutes of battery power. After half an hour, the pilot can shut down one has an APR feature that boosts thrust by engine, if needed for descent and landing, to control thrust and then use gear and 10 percent if needed in the event of a one- engine-inoperative takeoff. flaps to modulate speed. On short final, the other engine can be shut down and the Once cleared for takeoff on Runway 08, we aircraft can be stopped on the runway using wheel brakes. pushed up the throttle levers to the stops. Fuel flow stabilized at 955 pph. Acceleration was modest, as expected, in light of the hot- and-high conditions. We rotated at 94 KIAS, noting a little more aft stick force required than one might expect in an airplane weigh- ing less than three tons. That’s undoubtedly the result of the main landing gear being po- sitioned well aft of the center of gravity. Once we lifted off at 100 KIAS, considerably less stick force was needed to control pitch. Roll control authority was good, but a little heavy in force. Eclipse engineers plan modifications that will reduce roll control effort. Passing through 400 feet agl, we retracted the flaps at 110 KIAS and reduced thrust for climb, noting 830 pph total fuel flow. As speed increased, we observed that there was only modest pitch force change with air-

www.AviationNow.com/BCA Business & Commercial Aviation ■ July 2005 7 Pilot Report

speed change, a possible result of airfoil de- the 10-degree takeoff position, enabling us to sign and the T-tail configuration. It was easy lower the nose to an almost flat attitude. to keep up with pitch trim changes as air- There was some aerodynamic noise from the speed increased, using the four-position ele- flaps, and a slight increase in thrust was vator/aileron trim switch atop the side stick. needed to stabilize at 110 KIAS. It has a comfortable rate of travel that ac- We flew the pattern fairly tightly, extend- commodates rapid trim changes up with ing the gear when abeam the downwind pitch force changes at low speed and avoids numbers along with approach flaps. We over trimming at high speed. turned to base almost immediately and The aircraft has excellent short period slowed to 100 KIAS. Turning final, we ex- pitch and roll stability, plus strong spiral sta- tended the flaps to the landing position and bility. Although yaw stability isn’t its strong slowed to 85 KIAS, the slowest we could fly suit, prompt rudder pedal inputs quickly until stall testing is complete. Even so, that dampen oscillations. In addition, the rudder speed was the slowest we’ve yet flown an ap- on the test aircraft has yet to be modified proach to landing in a civil jet. It was consid- with production-configuration trailing edge erably slower than we could fly in virtually wedges that should promote clean flow sep- any twin turboprop business aircraft. We’d aration and help dampen yaw perturbations. not feel comfortable flying that slowly on fi- Without rudder inputs, the aircraft has a nal in most piston twins. natural 2.5-second yaw period and prominent About 30 feet above the runway we pulled yaw-roll coupling (Dutch roll), especially the throttles to idle. The aircraft decelerated with its short coupling about all three axes. quickly in the flare. There was plenty of The aircraft has very little rotational or trans- ground effect to cushion the landing and the lational inertia. Production aircraft will be fit- generous travel, trailing link landing gear ted with yaw dampers. made for a soft touchdown. After several The stability checks also revealed notice- touch-and-goes, we concluded that it’s vir- Generous ground effect and long-travel, trailing- able latency in the PFD and standby attitude link main landing gear all but eliminate any tually impossible to make a bad landing in indicator. Yaw, pitch and roll indications possibility of making a bad landing. The landing the Eclipse 500. lagged actual aircraft attitude changes by sev- gear are electrically actuated. The only hydraulic On one touch-and-go, we retarded the eral degrees. This display latency also is no- system on the aircraft is the wheel brakes. right throttle to idle at rotation to simulate a ticeable when making system configuration pending the outcome of high-speed flutter one-engine-inoperative takeoff. Mild rudder changes through AVIO. An upcoming soft- tests that were slated for June. At a weight of pressure checked the yaw rate and the aircraft ware update from Avidyne, supplier of the dis- 5,100 pounds, we accelerated to 170 KIAS. climbed straight ahead with very little aileron plays and radios, should solve latency The aircraft cruised at 255 KTAS while burn- input. After gear retraction, we recorded a problems. The Eclipse 500 has very little in- ing 480 pph. Slowing to 154 KIAS, fuel flow 500 fpm climb in spite of Albuquerque’s hot- ertia because it’s so lightweight. Slam the dropped to 400 pph and the aircraft cruised at and-high density altitude conditions. throttle forward and you’ll notice immediate 231 KTAS — a speed not unlike that of an Our final approach was Tomeny’s trade- acceleration, initially accompanied by a slight entry-level twin turboprop. We concluded mark Simulated Flameout approach, starting nose-down pitching moment. Pull the thrust that while the Eclipse 500 indeed is efficient, out at high key above the runway downwind levers to idle and the aircraft slows down right it’s still a jet. Maximum speed and range per- numbers, not unlike a single-engine fighter away, however, at first, with a slight nose-up formance will require flying in the mid- to that’s run out of fuel. But in the Eclipse 500, pitching moment caused by thrust reduction. high thirties. we only had to be 2,000 feet agl above the At 15,000 feet, we checked low altitude Slow speed handling is one of the aircraft’s runway at high key at 120 KIAS, descending max cruise speed performance. At a weight strong suits. Extending the gear produces a at idle to and 1,000 feet agl at low key abeam of 5,270 pounds, the aircraft achieved an in- noticeable, but easily controllable, nose-up the numbers. We extended the gear and flaps dicated airspeed of 223 KIAS and a cruise pitching moment while the gear is in transi- to approach and flew a right racetrack pat- speed of 288 KTAS while burning 760 pph in tion. Extending the flaps to the first notch, tern to final, slowing to 100 KIAS with 90 de- ISA+26°C conditions. At 200 KIAS, fuel flow the takeoff position, also produces a mild grees turn to go and 500 feet agl remaining dropped to 650 pph and the aircraft cruised nose-up pitching moment. Further extension altitude. On final, we slowed to 90 KIAS and at 260 KTAS. Fuel flow was 560 pph at 180 to the approach position causes a slight nose- coasted in for a smooth touchdown. Runway KIAS, 425 pph at 150 and 380 pph at 120 down pitching moment. The transition to deceleration was sluggish, though. There is KIAS. Down at 15,000 feet, the Eclipse 500 full flaps causes very little trim change. The excessive ground idle thrust pending a achieved specific ranges of 0.37 nm/lb to 0.41 electric trim has plenty of rate authority to FADEC software revision; furthermore, we nm/lb, depending upon cruise speed. It’s es- keep up with such configuration-induced landed with a slight tailwind and the wheel sential to put these numbers into context. trim changes and there’s ample thrust to brakes were a little spongy. Serial number 109 has substantially more air- check deceleration, even at 15,000 feet. All of this seemed fairly routine until we frame drag than a production aircraft because The landing pattern is where the Eclipse returned home and jumped into an F33A of the relatively abrupt transition between 500 excels relative to other turbine aircraft, Bonanza the following weekend. It was then the wing deice boots and the wing top sur- as well as most piston twins still in produc- we put the two Eclipse 500 flights into per- face, plus it has numerous exposed washers tion. We entered downwind, slowing to 110 spective. This is an aircraft that promises that secure various composite pieces onto the KIAS in the clean configuration. The aircraft better-than-Citation II cruise speed, twin- aluminum airframe. was quite comfortable at that speed with am- piston fuel efficiency in cruise and almost Cruise performance was better at FL 250, ple stall margin, but the nose was cocked up Bonanza-like docility in the landing pattern. as expected. That’s as high as we could fly at five-plus degrees. We extended the flaps to In less than three hours in the Eclipse 500,

8 Business & Commercial Aviation ■ July 2005 www.AviationNow.com/BCA we felt far more comfortable than after when probed about the fitness of certain out- dozens of hours in any single- or multi- side vendors. Chief Financial Officer Peter engine turboprop. In our opinion, any pilot Reed, senior vice president of finance and ad- who has mastered a high-performance pis- ministration, is wearing out the carpet be- ton twin will find the Eclipse 500 far easier tween his office and Raburn’s as the two meet to fly, especially in the event of an engine several times per day to discuss supplier failure on takeoff. problems, such as technical development progress, production process controls, over- Nine Months Until TC, If . . . due certification documents and ramp up ca- Raburn and his team believe that they can pacity deficiencies. earn FAA type certification by March 31, Eclipse officials are stepping up their on- 2006. They allow that the program is 45 days site visits to vendor facilities. Several vendors behind schedule in late May and that the will be able to meet Eclipse’s goal of build- “largest area of concern is now the flight test ing 150 aircraft in 2006, but some will strug- program.” Last winter’s El Niño put an IFR gle to ramp up to a production rate of 600 damper on test flying for several days. aircraft per year in 2007. Eclipse now has 40 N503EA, the first fully conforming test air- people working full time on supplier ramp craft, flew only 18 hours in the first 90 days, up issues in 2007 and 2008. but it then flew three times that amount in Raburn remains confident Eclipse can the following 60 days. make its March 31, 2006, type certification LED position and strobe lights at the wingtips But flight test progress is accelerating. have 10,000-plus-hour service lives. This is part goal, “but there are a number of events on the N503EA was a work in progress on its first of Eclipse’s drive to improve dispatch reliability part of the vendors that drive the game.” two flights on Dec. 31, 2004. One wing had by several orders of magnitude over current pro- While he avows the deadline is achievable, he a slight warp, the nosewheel was prone to duction light jets. also admits “we’re out of pad.” He’s hopeful, shimmy, the cabin wouldn’t pressurize and rect control of Eclipse employees appears to but he admits “there are days when it gets the engines were difficult to start because of be proceeding apace. Reminiscent of the very frustrating, when I get very tired. If I had the experimental brushless AC starter/gen- Larry Bossidy era at AlliedSignal, most folks known how hard it would be, I probably erators. That’s all been cleaned up now. A at Eclipse now view weekends as workdays wouldn’t have done it.” new wing has been fitted to the airplane, pro- with less road traffic and fewer phone calls. In the midst of all of this, Raburn has been duction starters have been installed, a new Having already raised nearly $400 million in highly complimentary of the support Eclipse nosegear has been fitted and all systems are equity, Raburn has launched a final round of has received from the FAA. “The regulatory go. The aircraft will be dedicated to FAA cer- private equity fund-raising, with the goal of process has not been a surprise and I believe tification testing for mechanical systems. preparing for full-scale production, training that it’s the most maligned process in avia- N502EA (s.n. 103), the second flight test and support, as well as aircraft type certifica- tion.” The FAA has furnished many more so- aircraft, first flew on April 14, 2005 and tion. “We’re going to keep fortifying this lutions than problems, according to Raburn. shortly it will start high-altitude flutter tests, company” to assure its success and growth, It’s basically a matter of explaining your case with full FAA certification testing for aero- Raburn asserts. to the right FAA people, he maintained. dynamics and structures to follow. N504EA But Raburn and others seem a little edgy Paraphrasing Charles Dickens, Raburn says (s.n. 109), first flown on April 21 and that it’s been the best of times and the worst of which we flew for this report, will be used for times. One of his biggest challenges has been AVIO, avionics and systems development, an aviation supply chain that’s geared up for among other tasks. N505EA, the first of two 1950s technology, production methods and beta-test aircraft, was to enter flight test by quality control. His biggest surprise has been mid-June, pending engine deliveries. The the quality of people Eclipse has attracted to fuselage of N506EA, the second beta-test air- the program, folks from Boeing, the U.S. craft, is nearly complete and it’s almost ready Navy and U.S. Air Force flight test center and for wing mate. The static test article has been general aviation veterans, plus fresh all-star shipped to Southwest Research Institute in aviation graduates from the University of San Antonio, and the fatigue test article air- North Dakota and Embry-Riddle. frame soon will have its tailcone mounted to While the odds that Eclipse will win its race the airframe. Soon thereafter, wing mate to March 31, 2006, type certification may not will occur. be in Raburn’s favor, it would be imprudent The flight test team has a new U.S. Air to underestimate him, based upon his ability Force fighter pilot can-do approach due to to overcome formidable challenges from the the influence of Tomeny, who is expected to start of the program. attract like-minded test pilots to the Eclipse Besides, that date may be irrelevant to the 500 development program. The pace of first customers. From what we’ve seen on the flight test operations is accelerating and the ground and in flight, a few extra days, some trend is fast absorbing the 45-day lag in pro- weeks or even a couple of months will be well gram development. Type inspection author- N505EA and N506EA, the two beta-test Eclipse worth the wait. When initial Eclipse 500 de- ization now is slated for August, a lean seven 500 aircraft, are nearing final assembly. These liveries begin in 2006, the face of general avi- months prior to Eclipse’s March 31, 2006, aircraft also will be used, if needed, to supple- ation could change as much as it did over ment the flight test aircraft to finish the program goal for type certification. on schedule so that type certification can be 40 years ago when first deliveries of the Every aspect of the program under the di- earned by March 31, 2006. Learjet 23 began. B&CA

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