Haute Auto, Haute Jets | September 15, 2013

Haute Jet of the Week: Eclipse 550

Haute Auto, Haute Jets | September 15, 2013

By Renee Lucas

The Eclipse 550 is the new production jet from Eclipse Aerospace, scheduled to first come off of the manufacturing lines in Albuquerque, NM in 2013. It has been upgraded with new microprocessors in the avionics systems, allowing for Autothrottles, Synthetic Vision, and Enhanced Vision to be added to the Avio platform. The avionics also now run in a dual / redundant fashion, ensuring that there will never be any downtime for Avio.

The jet has four passenger seats and seating for two in the cockpit (rated for single pilot operation). Manufactured by Eclipse Aviation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, deliveries began in 2006 and the price quickly rose to over US$2 million.

Currently the company says it has plans to restart deliveries this year with the updated Eclipse 550, which will be priced at slightly less than US$3 million, making the Eclipse still the lowest priced very light jet aircraft on the market. Range with four occupants is 1,125 nautical miles (nm), Max Altitude is 41,000 ft, Cruise Fuel Flow is a low 59 gph and Max Cruise Speed: 375 ktas/430 mph.