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...  

FMI: www.eclipseaviation.com