Eclipse 500 First Flight Met All Expectations
August 26, 2002 - Before the Eclipse 500 logged its first landing at roughly 10:20 MDT on August 26, 2002, Eclipse Aviation Vice President of Safety, Training, and Flight Operations Don Taylor told EAA that the revolutionary jet’s first flight met all expectations.
Flying the camera ship, a Beech Baron, Taylor waited at 11,000 feet for the Eclipse 500 to lift off the Albuquerque, New Mexico, runway. “The first flight went according to the plan, and Chief Test Pilot Bill Bubb [flew every item on the test card], and there weren’t any surprises,” Taylor said.
Taylor said the only “issue” with the flight was photographic: following standard flight test procedure for the first flight of any new airplane, the Eclipse 500 did not retract its landing gear. A round of applause interrupted Taylor as Eclipse President and CEO Vern Raburn took the microphone at the postflight briefing for members of the Eclipse team.
“What
we accomplished today is now part of aviation history,” Raburn said.
“Today we stand together, more certain than ever that the Eclipse 500
will forever change the landscape of transportation.” Raburn thanked the
members of the Eclipse team for all the extra time they dedicated to
preparing air jet for its first flight. Acknowledging that many in the
aviation industry have said the Eclipse’s first flight would never
happen, Raburn offered two words: “It happened.”
The first flight of the six-place Eclipse 500 marks the start of a 16-month testing program that will involve eight test airframes and culminate with FAA certification, scheduled to occur in December 2003, with the first customer delivery scheduled for January 2004. The first test flight investigated the airplane’s basic maneuverability and checked its systems.
Flying at 9,000 feet in its designated test zone south of Albuquerque, the flight test crew evaluated engine handling, aircraft stability and control, general flying qualities and systems performance. “We completed all test conditions as planned and were very pleased with the results,” said Bubb.
“It’s been a lot of hard work, but we’re on our way,” Raburn said at the close of the postflight briefing. And more hard work is sure to come as the flight test program proves the jet’s expected performance characteristics and economics that will enable the creation of alternatives to today’s commercial air travel system. The Eclipse 500 flies 355 knots can travel 1,300 nautical miles (about the distance between Boston and Miami) at a cost of approximately 56 cents a mile to operate, and will allow travelers to fly point-to-point to more than 10,000 airports in the United States.
“Five
weeks ago, we told the world this was going to happen,” Raburn said.
“Well, it happened! And it was a sight to behold. Words cannot describe
this feeling. We’re on our way, we have a lot of work to do, but we’re
changing history, changing a whole world.”
EAA President Tom Poberezny, who was piped by telephone into Raburn’s exuberant postflight briefing, extended congratulations on behalf of EAA. “We’re proud to have played a role in the launch of Eclipse through its introduction at AirVenture in 2000,” he said.
For more on Eclipse, visit www.eclipseaviation.com.
