No Effect on Eclipse 500 Production or Delivery

While it may come as no surprise to a great many people following the intensive development of the Eclipse 500 VLJ, ANN can now divulge something that has been in the works for a while... the "divorce" of Eclipse Aviation and Avidyne.

According to sources close to Eclipse, "Avidyne will no longer supply components for the Avio Total Aircraft Integration system in the Eclipse 500. We have agreed it is in the mutual best interest of both companies, and our customers, to wind-down our relationship and go our separate ways.

"This change has no affect on Eclipse 500 production or delivery. All near-term customer aircraft will have the Avidyne components installed, and Eclipse will be retrofitting these early deliveries with the new components. The exact timing of the production cut-in is currently being finalized.

"Avio will continue to be an integral part of the Eclipse 500, and we are confident in our ability to deliver all of the promised functionality to our customers on an aggressive schedule. To this end, we have partnered with an impressive new team of proven, reliable suppliers to deliver Avio functionality. Our team has been working closely with this group behind-the-scenes for a number of months, and has already made significant progress. We expect the change to be seamless for our customers from a standpoint of Eclipse 500 functionality, look and feel."

ANN has been working this story for a while and will have more information shortly. Official announcements about the identity and capability of replacement suppliers for the Eclipse 500 Flight Deck are expected to be released within 2 weeks.

FMI: www.eclipseaviation.com, www.avidyne.com