the ECLIPSE JET failure?

[Photoflight]

Heres a very good blog for you guys out there wanting some non-company info onthe eclipse. Written by a former lear testpilot/engineer it explains why the eclipse will fall short of performance/price/delivery numbers.

http://eclipseaviationcritic.blogspot.com/

 

[AeroDMB]

http://www.eclipseaviation.com/index.php?option=com_newsroom&task=viewpr&id=1142&Itemid=348

 

[avbug]

What exactly is the point of this site? Sounds a lot like a one-man picket line. Is the person who runs it a former fired employee? One who didn't get severance? One who had a loud fight and still feels the need to gloat over the issue? Can he not move on?

The claims that Eclipse has made over the years have been outlandish and insulting to one's intelligence, from the customers who would be taking a thousand aircraft right off the bat to start their own six seat airline, to the claims made before the engine swap.

However, in an industry where progress and technology is somewhat stymied, where we see bigger and better business jets untouchable by most of the public, and where liability insists that we stick with world war II technology, the idea that someone might actually overcome the obstacles and produce a new product apparently just sticks in some folks craw.

I've run into the Eclipse folks a few times. I took airplanes to shows for display at a couple of shindigs where they wouldn't even talk to me in my lowly pilot shirt and epaulettes...I didn't look wealthy enough, apparently. At one show, they did talk to me, gave me a hat, chatted for a while. I don't care either way; if they can field a product that pleases the public that's paying, more power to them, and I hope they do very well.

I think the idea of the ballistic parachute on the Cirrus is a ridiculous idea. A sales gimmick, and it's often used by people who probably should have been cleansed out of the gene pool. Often for stupid pilot tricks, often unnecessarily, often in places where the pilot should never have gone, and for reasons the pilot should never have encountered. None the less, I'm not buying the airplane. The customers who use the system are paying for it, and it matters to them. I can squawk all I like, it won't amount to a hill of beans.

The fact is that the folks at Cirrus have managed to field a new aircraft over the past years in the face of an industry that's been in the dump. It's managed to modernize, to meet customer expectations, and to lift the industry in the process. I imagine the same can be said for Eclipse, Adam aircraft, and others out there. I may not even care for their products (can't say, as I've not flown them yet). All the same I wish them the best of success in their efforts, and w(h)eather I like their products or not, I'll be cheering on their efforts as I have done, to date.

 

[Lead Sled]

FWIW, I had a chance to take a long, close-up look at an Eclipse a few weeks back in Lincoln, NE. What a neat little airplane - the best description of it is a Bonanza 36 with two jet engines. I hope they sell a million of them. If I had the money I'd have one in the hangar.

LS

 

[mtrv]

I think the idea of the ballistic parachute on the Cirrus is a ridiculous idea. A sales gimmick, and it's often used by people who probably should have been cleansed out of the gene pool. Often for stupid pilot tricks, often unnecessarily, often in places where the pilot should never have gone, and for reasons the pilot should never have encountered. None the less, I'm not buying the airplane.

While several of the Cirrus chutes have been pulled for less than do or die situations, let's not forget the hanging aileron incident thanks to an improper installation by ground personel, and a recent situation where the pilot became incapacitated and a passenger pulled the chute, which saved three people.

Might not be such a bad idea afterall.

 

[The_Russian]

The Eclipse Jet may not fail, but Day Jet will.

 

[Lazy8]

I've run into the Eclipse folks a few times. I took airplanes to shows for display at a couple of shindigs where they wouldn't even talk to me in my lowly pilot shirt and epaulettes...I didn't look wealthy enough, apparently. At one show, they did talk to me, gave me a hat, chatted for a while. I don't care either way; if they can field a product that pleases the public that's paying, more power to them, and I hope they do very well.

I haven't ran into the Eclipse folks yet; however I did meet some Embraer sales reps showing off the Phenom 100 mock-up. I told them I was a flight instructor and they invited me in the fuselage to check it out and sit in the cockpit. Sweet setup. G1000's. Super ergonomic. They even gave me a nice hat and poster.

If Eclipse treats people differently based on their appearance then they're losing precious sales. Plenty of old t-shirt/faded jeans millionaires out there.

I think the idea of the ballistic parachute on the Cirrus is a ridiculous idea. A sales gimmick, and it's often used by people who probably should have been cleansed out of the gene pool. Often for stupid pilot tricks, often unnecessarily, often in places where the pilot should never have gone, and for reasons the pilot should never have encountered. None the less, I'm not buying the airplane. The customers who use the system are paying for it, and it matters to them. I can squawk all I like, it won't amount to a hill of beans.

I'm not opposed to the ballistic parachute system; however, I believe they're alot of Cirrus pilots out there that can not, in no way shape or form, keep up with that airplane. Insurance on the Cirrus is ridiculous for good reason.

g

 

[Jeff Helgeson]

Yeah, but.....

If Eclipse treats people differently based on their appearance then they're losing precious sales. Plenty of old t-shirt/faded jeans millionaires out there.

g

.....a million dollars does not go as far as it used to!!!

 

[mzaharis]

The Eclipse Jet may not fail, but Day Jet will.

But don't the two go hand in hand? It seems that Eclipse is very depenent on large air taxi fleets to amortize their large development costs. If the large taxi fleets don't materialize, Eclipse won't be able to deliver a plane for much less than a Cessna Mustang or Embraer Phenom 100, which appear to be more capable products.

For all the inexplicable vitriol in his blog, I think that this is the crux of eclipsecritic's criticisms. That, and he thinks that Vern is trying to cash out before people realize this (I haven't been following things closely enough to know if this is a valid criticism).

 

[Publishers]

There is no question that so much of the success is dependant on the market actually being what they say, the air taxi concept works, that they can produce a certain number of aircraft as fast as they say they can, that this happens over a period of time, not just the first or second year, and, that it works like it is supposed to without killing a number of people.
Other than that, there is no worry to this at all.