The Eclipse 500: The Most Tested General Aviation Aircraft

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began a Special Certification Review for the Eclipse 500® Very Light Jet (VLJ) on August 19, 2008. Eclipse Aviation complied fully with all FAA requirements during the certification process for the Eclipse 500. Gaining FAA Certification is an extensive undertaking, one that requires hundreds of tests and reports and thousands of testing hours conducted under the scrutiny of the FAA. There are no shortcuts, or ways to circumvent the robust processes and requirements. The rigorous process is how the FAA ensures the safety of our country's airspace and air travelers.

The Eclipse 500 is the most tested Part 23 (General Aviation) aircraft to be introduced in two decades. On average, the number of hours accumulated by a test fleet during FAA Certification is 1,100 hours. The Eclipse 500 test fleet accumulated more than 5,000 hours.

Eclipse has had no injuries or fatalities in more than 5,000 test hours, 32,000 total fleet hours, 20 months of customer shipments, and 245 delivered aircraft. No other aircraft in recent history has entered service with a better record.

The Situation

• The Eclipse 500 received FAA Certification on September 30, 2006. All new aircraft must receive certification from the FAA to be sold and operated in the United States.
• The FAA is now conducting a Special Certification Review to validate its original position that the Eclipse 500 is a safe aircraft.
• Historically, the FAA has conducted Special Certification Reviews when an aircraft's safety is brought into question, e.g., injuries or fatalities have occurred. To date, the Eclipse 500 has had no injuries or fatalities.

Designed and Tested with Safety as Top Priority

• The Eclipse 500 was designed to deliver exceptional safety and reliable performance. From its suite of avionics, to the structural makeup of the airframe, safety was the overriding tenet of Eclipse's design philosophy.
• The Eclipse 500 includes standard safety features that historically were available only on aircraft costing millions more, including: autothrottle; color weather radar; a dual-redundant flight management system with sophisticated aircraft performance computer; and "smart" electronic checklists and an intelligent crew alert system.
• The Eclipse 500 exceeded FAA requirements during FAA Static Testing in 2005. A distributed load was applied to the airframe to validate that the aircraft meets the FAA requirements for structural integrity. Eclipse 500 static tests included limit loads, which are the highest loads the aircraft would ever expect to experience, as well as ultimate loads, which represent 1.5 times the limit loads. The airframe accomplished all test points on the first pass, testament to the structural integrity of the airframe.
• As a result of all the above, the Eclipse 500 marks the safest introduction into service of any new airplane in 20 years. The Eclipse 500 fleet has accumulated more than 32,000 total fleet hours of operation, all with no injuries or fatalities. Eclipse believes this performance is unprecedented in general aviation.

Our Cooperation with the FAA

• Eclipse and the FAA were partners in the certification process for the Eclipse 500 to ensure all requirements were met, and the Eclipse 500 entered service meeting or exceeding FAA safety requirements.
• Eclipse was among the first aircraft manufacturers to follow the FAA Certification Process Improvement (CPI) program. Detailed FAA involvement in a certification process is a hallmark of the CPI program.
• The CPI program also allows the FAA to focus on safety-critical or unique design features as they are being created. Eclipse shared these and the preliminary design concepts of the Eclipse 500 with the FAA.
• The FAA sends an engineering team of 10 to 15 people to oversee the certification of a VLJ type of aircraft. In addition to this assigned review team, Eclipse also utilized FAA technical resources at initial design of the aircraft through to certification and to successful fielding of the Eclipse 500. Proactively using these resources helped influence the initial and final design of the aircraft.

Eclipse also worked with personnel from the Technical Standards Staff of the FAA Small Airplane, Engine & Propeller, and Rotorcraft Directorates. These experts assisted in many technical, regulation, and policy discussions. Eclipse worked with the FAA Chief Scientific & Technical Advisors (formerly known as National Resource Specialists) at different phases of the certification program in the areas of Human Factors, Nondestructive Evaluation, Fracture Mechanics, Icing, Advanced Avionics/Electrical, Propulsion Control Systems, EMI & Lightning, and Fuel Systems.

Confident in the Outcome

• Eclipse is confident the review will reconfirm that the Eclipse 500 was in full compliance with FAA Certification requirements and that all FAA tests and evaluations completed in 2006 received the highest degree of thoroughness, accuracy, and integrity.