Interim Engines Worked 'As Expected'

The Eclipse 500, on the ground for major re-engining since last Summer, has taken to the air, again -- and everything worked as planned.

Thursday morning, at 8:47 local time, the Teledyne-powered (382-10E) personal jet left the ground. "We flew for 26 minutes," Eclipse's Dottie Hall told ANN. "This flight was primarily a re-familiarization flight." Pressed for details, we learned, "It was quite windy; they took off, they did some maneuvering, they landed!" [The P&W 610F engines will be fitted to the second machine late next year. Subsequent machines, too, are to be Pratt-powered --ed.]

Flying chase was Vern Raburn's Turbo Commander, with the Chief at the controls.

The flight, from a windswept Albuquerque (NM) airport that boasted about a 7000-foot density altitude at ground level, went to 10,000 feet; since gear and flaps were not to have been used, maximum speed was held to 135kt.

Bob Suter, Eclipse's deputy-chief test pilot, was in the cockpit; he got to check a little more handling, too. He noted, "The airplane handled extremely well in very gusty conditions. I took off in light winds, but returned to gusts of 44kts on final."

Dottie told us, "Another interesting note is that we did use our telemetry system on the aircraft. It captures, downloads and archives about 600 data parameters on all of the systems, strucutre and handling characteristics. This is extremely valuable both for real-time analysis during the flight and for post-flight analysis. We don't have to guess what's happening with the aircraft."

As we think about the long months since the Williams engines were pulled off the airframe, we can note, along with Ms Hall, "The main significance of this flight is that it marks the resumption of flight test. This flight was primarily to validate the installation of the interim Teledyne engines. It sets the stage for flight test throughout the year that will focus on aerodynamic and systems validation."

We'll have more information soon; but, right after the flight, Mr. Raburn had to go into a previously-scheduled board meeting (wearing a big grin).

FMI: www.eclipseaviation.com