Wed, Feb 19, 2003
One of the most interesting guessing games in in
many months is about to come to decision as ANN has learned that
Eclipse Aviation has officially selected Pratt &
Whitney as its sole engine supplier for the Eclipse 500
business jet, and will announce it later today (Update: as
seen in the stories below).
After a tumultuous decision last year in which Eclipse was
forced to drop the Williams EJ22 from its program, the rumor mill
has been hot and heavy over who might be selected to power what may
eventually become the world's most affordable form of air
transport.
More details are expected later today and ANN, who
broke this story to begin with (please note editorial boasting...
we're proud of our work--and sources--on this story), will be
bringing them to you forthwith.
In the meantime, Eclipse will be dusting off its
prototype, and proceeding with flight tests once again, within the
next month or so. The aircraft will be temporarily fitted with a
substitute powerplant until the applicable P&W burners show up,
ready for action. When the test-bed resumes operations, it
will fly with "stand-in" engines... 1000-pound thrust
cruise missile powerplants (the 382-10c, otherwise known as the
Teledyne CAE F408-CA-400 turbofan)... just like those used in the
Mach 0.85 Teledyne Ryan BQM-145 Peregrine UAV.
Final configuration flight testing with the new
production Pratt & Whitney powerplants should
commence before the end of 2004.
Update: The details have just been
released and follow this story below...
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