Fourth Conforming Eclipse 500 Test Aircraft In The Air

When ANN's Jim Campbell flew the Eclipse 500 last week, one of the most impressive sights to be had was not necessarily from the left seat of N504EA at 18,000 feet, but in viewing the immense progress made on the test aircraft, under assembly, being used to certify this revolutionary aircraft.

Aircraft that were barely framed up just weeks ago were readying for flight and with each new bird, more capability is added and additional design progress is made.

Also, since each test bird sports one of the standard paint schemes, we're getting a chance to see them, one by one, in full scale... where they're legitimately looking prettier than the artist's renderings suggest.

Two major milestones were undertaken just a few days after ANN's latest visit, with the first flight of the fourth new Eclipse 500 flight test aircraft, and the initial test conducted for the stall chute needed to open up the lower end of the Eclipse 500 test envelope.

N505EA, the fourth conforming flight test aircraft, made its maiden flight on July 9 at Albuquerque International Sunport. Piloted by George Meyers and Stefan Johansson, N505EA took off at 1:44 pm and climbed to 15,000 feet and reached 160 knots. After completing initial tests, including flap operation, pressurization, and handling characteristics, the aircraft landed at 2:27 pm to complete the 43 minute flight.

Test aircraft N503EA successfully performed a stall chute deployment test on July 9. The ground test was performed at Albuquerque International Sunport. Pilot Bill Bubb accelerated N503EA on Runway 35 to 70 knots, then deployed the chute. After several seconds the chute was the jettisoned.

This stall chute deployment test verifies the proper function of the recovery chute system, which includes a high-speed chute for envelope expansion and a low-speed chute for stall testing.

In the meantime, ANN's Jim Campbell is well into a massive flight test update on flying the Eclipse... the first few parts (of what appears to be, at least, a 6-8 piece interim review), should show up within a few days and continue through Oshkosh.  

FMI: www.eclipseaviation.com