In a forum at this year’s AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis., Eclipse Aerospace chairman and president Mason Holland pulled no punches with the crowd of some 40 owners who’d gathered to hear the latest details about the company and its progress to complete the list of items necessary to upgrade every Eclipse 500 to Version 1.7. “This airplane has been the soap opera of aviation for the past 10 years,” said Holland. “We’re starting to plan for the future. We’re building a roadmap to the future.” Holland said in Oshkosh that progress on the 1.7 upgrades to the airplane have been successful enough that he felt confident saying, “We can get [this airplane] back into production. A part of the rebranding of the aircraft is rebuilding the supply chain. We’re going to produce this airplane again.” Seventy-six airframes of the original 260 have been modified to 1.7 standards.
Owners in attendance at Oshkosh seemed ready to hear Holland’s message that the Eclipse is the only true twin-engine jet in the $2- to $3 million category. “There’s a lot of love and passion around this airplane,” he said.
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