In one year, Eclipse Aviation has ramped up its production of Eclipse 500 very light jets to a rate of nearly one per day. Last year the company’s Albuquerque, N.M. factory built 103 jets and it expects to achieve the one-per-day rate in this year’s second quarter. While this number is well below earlier Eclipse projections, it is nevertheless a remarkable accomplishment and also the fastest rate of production growth of any new jet manufacturer. Eclipse has orders for 2,650 copies of the very light jet.
Acknowledging the fact that the company is still not meeting delivery targets, Eclipse president and CEO Vern Raburn blames the company’s own production capability and problems with component vendors. “I find it fascinating that Boeing is going through the same problems we did,” Raburn said, referring to recent announcements that the jetliner manufacturer has again delayed first flight of the 787 due to production start-up and supply-chain problems.
