Eclipse 550 Debuts

(11/3, F. George, Aviationweek) Plenty of diehard Eclipse 500 skeptics scoffed at Mason Holland, chairman and CEO of Eclipse Aerospace, when he announced at the 2011 NBAA Convention that his firm intended to resume building the aircraft sometime in 2013. Cynics all but buried the very light jet (VLJ) concept after EA500 production stopped in 2008, writing it off as a misguided, overhyped folly of Vern Raburn, founder of failed Eclipse Aviation (See Fast Five, page 25.) But Holland believes the original aircraft had great potential value, if only Eclipse Aviation had finished its development. For instance, the Eclipse 500 lacked certification for flight into known ice, a full-function flight guidance system and a true FMS, among its other shortcomings. Now Holland will get the chance to prove his premise because he really is restarting the assembly line in Albuquerque, N.M., and the new production aircraft will not only deliver on 100% of the promises of the original aircraft, it will offer several new features. Accordingly, the improved aircraft has a new designator — Eclipse 550 — and will be priced at $2.695 million in 2011 dollars. That should make it at least $1 million less expensive than the Embraer Phenom 100, the next lowest priced twin turbofan light jet...

HondaJet Likely To Be First Of A Family

(10/7, G. Larson, Aviationweek) As Honda Aircraft begins its sixth year, it is advancing cautiously but relentlessly toward the 2012 scheduled certification of its $4.5 million HA-420 HondaJet. One pacing item for the airplane’s overall approval is its turbofan engine, the HF-120. A product of GE Honda Aero Engines, the powerplant, equipped with a full authority digital engine control (Fadec), first ran in 2009 and became available for testing on a conformal aircraft for the first time in 2010. Its developers report “steady progress” and expect to receive FAA certification of the 2,095-lb.-thrust engine by year-end. Although the aircraft program has been delayed by more than a year, the Honda organization appears to be unhurried—paced, no doubt, by the precipitous drop in the global economy and subsequent fall-off in light-jet sales. Meanwhile, it continues to be guarded about the precise health of the order book, which has stood at “over 100” for years now...