Eclipse – Barely Breathing

In the last few days we have seen a flurry of articles in the aviation press about the trouble Eclipse is having getting FAA production certification approval. Only one aircraft has actually been delivered since December when David Crowe took delivery of the first aircraft. Recent troubles became apparent when a week ago CEO Vern Raburn announced the end of Avidyne’s involvement in the program. Avidyne was a key supplier of almost the entire avionics suite. Avidyne is not the first respected subcontractor to be terminated. Williams International, whose engine the Eclipse was designed around, dropped out early in the program requiring a major redesign and delay of production. Last week Raburn said that serious problems have “plagued virtually every aspect of development, design and production.” Within hours United Airlines dropped the Eclipse training program. A type certificate is required to fly the airplane and to my knowledge the only pilots authorized to fly the Eclipse are production test pilots. With no training program, Eclipse typed pilots will be hard to find. I am sure this does not make the pioneering Mr. Crowe very happy, or any of the hundreds of others waiting for delivery. I wrote The Eclipse of the Eclipse? last August, but I did not foresee these problems, nor did I expect to see this company on life support so soon.

I asked Vaughn Cordle, one of my partners in The Aviation Group, CEO and Chief Analyst of AirlineForecasts, and a B777 pilot for a major airline, for a reality check. I will be posting his reply here.