Promises To File Development Plan This Month

If Eclipse has its way, the Double Eagle II Airport near Albuquerque will soon be a very busy place. Already, that strip has been designated as the new home for Utilicraft Aerospace's manufacturing operation. Now, Eclipse has filed paperwork to build its VLJs at the same airport.

"They are going to be applying for approval of a site development plan on or before April 7, and there will be a hearing on it on April 19," says Russell Brito, a senior planner with the Environmental Planning Commission. He was quoted by the New Mexico Business Weekly.

The Eclipse application says its manufacturing operation at Double Eagle II should be under construction by 2010. Company officials say they'll eventually employ 1,500 people at the airport, turning out 1,500 planes a year.

"We are doing some preliminary master planning. It is very preliminary. We don't have any architectural work done," said Eclipse's facilities director, Larry Jones.

If everyone signs off on the construction project, the new Eclipse factory will sit on 150 acres of airport land.

That would make for a much bigger facility than the one Eclipse now operates at the Albuquerque International Sunport. Right now, the company occupies a 90,000 square foot renovated hangar.

Eclipse had originally planned to build a $75 million facility at Double Eagle II back in 2003. But developmental delays in the Eclipse 500 forced a two-year delay in those plans.

As ANN reported in February, Utilicraft Aerospace had apparently overcome financing concerns among both New Mexico state officials and leaders of the Navajo Nation, promising to go ahead with construction of its manufacturing plant at Double Eagle II.

FMI: www.eclipseaviation.com