THE Surprise Unveiling of 2007: The ECJ Concept
What a year! 2007 was an amazing combination of so many good and
bad things... but for sure, there was NO end of excitement. If
there was a "reveal" of the year, it HAS to have been the first
sight of the super-secret Eclipse Concept Jet program... which only
Eclipse, ANN, and a few others knew ANYTHING about until the
opening morning of Oshkosh 2007.
Eclipse Aviation -- and company CEO Vern Raburn, in particular
-- certainly have a flair for the dramatic. At a kickoff press
event early Monday morning, before the gates opened at AirVenture
2007, the planemaker took the wraps off a concept model of its
Eclipse Concept Jet: a single engine, four-passenger, slightly
futuristic-in-appearance V-tailed aircraft intended to test the
waters in the emerging Personal Jet category.
But the planemaker didn't stop there. A line in Chief Operating
Officer Peg Billson's speech describing the concept model -- an
offhand remark about "flight testing" -- was drowned out by the
unmistakable (muted) scream of a single Pratt & Whitney Canada
PW610F turbofan, as the living and breathing ECJ made its
debut.
The crowd applauded as the tent flaps opened to reveal the
aircraft, with a grinning Raburn in the left seat (and company test
pilot Terry Tomeny in the co-pilot's chair.) As the engine spooled
down, Raburn emerged from the plane, and adopted his best "cool
test pilot" pose. The industry was stunned.
Now... for the first time, is a three part series about some of
the behind the scenes events that took place to make this happen...
including the first flight... which ONLY ANN as there to shoot,
air-to-air. The whole program was wrapped in the utmost secrecy, so
we were priveleged to be let in as the program got underway.
The ECJ cruises at a top speed of 345 knots and its service
ceiling will be 41,000 feet. The aircraft's range is estimated to
be 1,250 nautical miles. A unique element of the ECJ's aerodynamic
design is its empennage, which features an external mounted engine
pod and V-Tail vertical surfaces that create what Eclipse terms
"exceptional" aerodynamic, weight, and operational benefits.
The ECJ shares a number of design elements with the Eclipse 500.
Common to the ECJ and the Eclipse 500 are the wing assembly minus
the tip tanks, which includes the ailerons, the fuel system, main
landing gear and actuators, flaps and flap actuators, wheels and
brakes. The nose assembly is also common to both aircraft and
includes the nose landing gear assembly, landing gear doors,
forward pressure bulkhead, air conditioning and oxygen supply. The
ECJ also features Eclipse's all-electric Avio NG system,
controlling aircraft computer systems, flight control trims,
autopilot, electrical power distribution, FADEC, air data, AHRS,
landing gear and flap actuation. All of the ECJ's major system
components are controlled and managed using Avio NG, just as they
are on the Eclipse 500.
Eclipse has not yet made an official decision as to whether or
not they will produce the ECJ... but the extraordinary interest in
this efficient, exciting airplane (the extent of which even
surprised Eclipse) convinces all of us at ANN, that there may be
yet another big announcement in store for next Oshkosh. Until then,
stay tuned... as always, ANN will keep you up to date on all things
aviation (including the Eclipse!), every day, 24/7.
Let's Check Out
Part Three of Aero-TV's
Exciting INSIDE Look At The ECJ Program
About Aero-TV: It's DEFINITELY Show
Time!!!!
OK, folks, here we go... we are NOW initiating the first
feature programming series for Aero-TV... we're going to take it
slow, but we're also going to try and be steady about this. DO
UNDERSTAND that this is the most complex media program we've ever
undertaken and what you're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg...
but from here on out, we will be doing our best to educate,
inform, and entertain YOU about all aspects of the exciting worlds
of aviation and aerospace.
If you've been an observer of the media and associated media
industries over the last few years, it's not hard to mistake the
fact that a massive revolution is taking place. Old sources for
news and information are falling by the wayside, having to change
their modus operandi or risk obsolescence (or extinction).
Electronic media and print media are both under the assault of
progress, and the online world has been a cornerstone for
revolutionary change.
We've been ready to go for a while, but to be honest, there's so
much more to this program than we've alluded to, and so we've been
building and planning a massive new organization within ANN. That
said, we're hiring talented new people as
fast as we can find them (a far more difficult
task than we had imagined -- REALLY good people are hard to find),
and we're brainstorming at speeds that would make a deorbiting
Space Shuttle feel like a slug. Suffice it to say that we wanted to
do this right, rather than right-now, and that the development of
this program has been the most carefully pursued undertaking we've
ever undertaken.
E-I-C Note: The
complete feature shown above is embedded in this
story, with most of the slick and useful functionality
otherwise available on the main Aero-TV site (which will be
upgraded aggressively over the next few weeks). The ability to
embed a video on another web page is but one of the hundreds
of amazing little features that we've worked hard on, for many
months now, to implement in different phases of the initial
release of Aero-TV. It is, BY NO MEANS, the only way to enjoy
unaltered Aero-TV programming on other parts of the web... as we
have extensive plans for future functionality, but this
feature allows those with an interest in a specific Aero-TV News or
Feature program to embed it on a different web site, though we
must note that we reserve the right to forbid such use for those
sites or purposes that we do not feel fit in with the proper
mission of the Aero-News Network, Inc.
Webmasters or Administrators of well-trafficked aviation or
aerospace related sites, are welcome to contact the Publisher to
start conversations on how they may be able to leverage some of the
immense power of Aero-TV programming for their sites and
constituency by clicking the I Want Aero-TV For
MY Website! link.
Coming Soon!
ANN Is Proud to Present An EXTENSIVE Three Part
Series On The College Park Airport Controversy!, Aero-TV Shows You
How To Build A Glasair Sportsman 2+2 in RECORD TIME, Flies The
Piper Matrix, Hears What's Hot At Blue Mountain Avionics, Gets
Some GREAT Rotax Lessons, Gets Updated On ALL Things Lopresti, Has
A FUN Chat With Corkey Fornof, More On Gobosh--This Time, Though,
On the NEW G800!, Checks Out More "HIGH" Tech at I/ITSEC
2007, Hears From AOPA On Critical Aviation Issues, Spills Some
Juicy (and HIGHLY Detailed) Cirrus G3 Info, Catches Up On ALL
Things SkyCatcher, Scores A BUNCH of LSA Reports, and SO MUCH
MORE!!!!! Do NOT Miss Them!
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