On Thursday, the Eclipse 500 first very light jet (VLJ) made its European debut at AERO 2007 in Friedrichshafen, Germany. According to Eclipse Aviation, this is the first time that the Eclipse 500 has been outside of North America. The twinjet left Eclipse’s headquarters in Albuquerque, N.M., on April 14 and flew the North Atlantic route through Canada, Greenland, Iceland and the UK before landing in Friedrichshafen. Europe is such a great market for the Eclipse 500 because of its superior performance and efficiency to anything else offered today, noted Eclipse Public Relations Director Andrew Broom. We already have more than 100 orders throughout this market, and we be lieve that once people in Europe and the UK see it and fly it, we can change the way they travel. Over the next month, the Eclipse 500 will travel to several countries while attending trade shows and completing sales demo flights before arriving in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 22 for the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition.
The aircraft manufacturer says the Eclipse 500 is the “quietest turbine powered aircraft” and exceeds ICAOs most stringent Stage 4 noise standard by more than 40 decibels. It said that noise testing proves that the Eclipse 500 is quieter than all multi-engine and most single-engine piston powered aircraft. “Additional testing by Pratt & Whitney Canada shows that the Eclipse 500s PW610F engines are setting a green engine benchmark by registering a smoke number (SN) of less than five, while the regulatory limit for engine smoke emissions is a SN of 50,” Eclipse said.
