Order Today, Get Your Plane In February … of 2008 …
They’re more than a year away from delivering their first airplane but Eclipse Aviation is already making plans to boost production. The Albuquerque company announced earlier this week that it plans to hit the ground running and build 260 planes in its first year of production (2006) and 880 in its second year, up from 140 and 500, respectively. Not only will it make quicker work of the 2,100-order backlog, it also means that if you order an Eclipse today, you’ll get it in February of 2008, instead of September of that year. The company also announced that it has selected all of its 65 suppliers and is 25 percent through the FAA certification process. There are now seven pre-production aircraft under construction and tests of the Pratt and Whitney Canada PW610F engines are scheduled to begin by the end of this year. Eclipse is also getting ready to establish seven factory service centers throughout the U.S., with the first two opening in 2006 in Albuquerque and Gainesville, Fla.. “By 2008, an Eclipse Service Center will be within a 1.5 hour flight for virtually all customers in the lower 48 states,” a company news release said.
