Eclipse 500 first flight!

[414Flyer]

From abqjournal.com


Eclipse 500 Soars In First Test Flight

By Aaron Baca
Journal Staff Writer
Eclipse Aviation sucessfully completed the first flight of its Eclipse 500 twin-engine business jet at the Albuquerque International Sunport Monday morning.
The Eclipse 500, a new type of business jet that's considerably smaller and cheaper than current business aircraft, took off from the Sunport at 9:20 a.m. with a twin-engined turbroprop airplane following as a chase plane. The jet is selling for less than $1 million.
After completing a brief pass over the airport, the Eclipse jet turned south for an hour-long flight.
The Eclipse 500, carrying only a test pilot and several onboard computers, landed at the Sunport at 10:20 a.m.. It touched down heading north in front of Eclipse Aviation's hangars.

 

[boscenter]

O_O

 

[Dan CFI/CFII]

Interesting! I knew they were about a month behind schedule, but was told by one of thier engineers in the flight test department that they would do the first flight at about 4:00 in the morning--just to keep it a low profile.

Hey, on the bright side, maybe now that ground school they wanted us to teach for the employees flying club might actually have the time to happen!

Hooray for New Mexico! What has your state done today?

Dan

 

[CitationCapt]

Eclipse first flight

I saw it from a distance. Glad to see the progress and look forward to Vern Raburn's leadership moving this product to market.

CC