Aircraft
Eclipse 500 makes first flight with P&W engines
Keeping its promise, Albuquerque, N.M.-based Eclipse Aviation flew the first Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F-powered Eclipse 500 certification flight-test ai

Keeping its promise, Albuquerque, N.M.-based Eclipse Aviation flew the first Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F-powered Eclipse 500 certification flight-test aircraft at 10:16 a.m. MST on December 31. The milestone marked the beginning of a 15-month testing program that will involve seven test airframes and culminate with planned FAA certification in March next year.

The very light jet (N503EA) successfully completed two sorties on its first day of flight-testing. Flown by test pilots Bill Bubb and Brian Mathy, the production-conforming Eclipse 500 took off from Albuquerque International Sunport for its maiden flight, which lasted one hour 29 minutes. After a thorough inspection by engineers, N503EA was cleared and departed again at 3:59 p.m. for a second flight, which lasted 54 minutes.