I was in Albuquerque last week, waiting in the Cutter Aviation FBO for several hours. There was a nice Eclipse Jet there, N71MT. I noticed a guy in the FBO with an Eclipse shirt on so I went and talked to him about the jet. I was saying how cool they were, but the question was support, since the company has had trouble, bankruptcy, etc. He said someone in Europe had purchased 30 of them for some kind of operation and they were planning to start producing them again. The one there had been painted, white with a silver and orange stripe, and it looked good (better than the photo below from FlightAware).

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N71MT

Does anyone have any more info on this? Or other comments on Eclipse jets? They look sweet.

If the history of the Paris Jet is any clue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Sa ... .760_Paris

There will be repeated attempts to fix up / support / repurpose the fleet until there's no fleet left...

Hard for me to imagine a niche that can support a jet but used Cessna Mustang's or new Cirrus jets are not a better fit...

But kudos to the entrepreneurs with dreams in their hearts, that's something we never want to lose in aviation.

Notice that in all the flights this month they stayed quite low: 10 to 12,000 Ft.

Looks like it is going to the NBAA convention in Orlando.

First leg FL370, second leg filed for FL350.

Mike C.

Notice that in all the flights this month they stayed quite low: 10 to 12,000 Ft.

Notice that in all the flights this month they stayed quite low: 10 to 12,000 Ft.

That's better. For some reason I saw the altitudes in meters on FA.

You'd think the Eclipse Jet would be doing a bang-up business in the current market. But I see very few flying on ADS-B. In contrast, every day there are quite a few 510 Mustangs (an Eclipse jet competitor) flying all over the world, probably mostly doing air taxi/charter work.

This hot market can't last forever.

On the way to the Bahamas this summer, I ran into some guys from Georgia at the Fort Pierce FBO. They had two of them and were gaggling down (or back, can't recall) from the Bahamas with their families/friends. They said parts and support was good and they were really enjoying them...the way he described it they were in a fractional/club arrangement that was working pretty well. The concept is sure pretty appealing, but I suspect that market has moved to the Vision Jet now, versus a re-start of the Eclipse operation.

To "simply" restart production, they would need to convince PW to make them new 610's, not to mention source the outdated avionics etc. More likely, they would need to finish the development of the "700" with the larger Williams engines and some modern electronics, which means certification work before production of a new model can start.

But not to display at the trade show (which is at KORL), probably just to attend (since it is going to KISM).

Doubt this is part of any announcement from Eclipse.

The basic idea is sound. Small twin engine light jet, good basic planform. Pull all the avionics crap out and use Garmin panels and GTN and the plane would be stellar.

Ironically, if the plane had shipped with steam gauges, it would be far more supportable today than the so called "future proof" avionics it currently has.

Mike C.

I really hope they get this bird going again
I had the pleasure to fly one, and they are a great little jet, with the redundancy of second engine, as opposed to the clown, sorry, the vision thing...

I'm here at the show all week and walked the exhibit hall this afternoon, didn't see them. They are not listed as exhibitors in the convention center or at the flightline displays.

It's a neat little airplane but it just has too many expensive parts on it that far outweigh the extra fuel burn of flying a giant Citation around. Not an opinion, I'm speaking facts.

It is ironic that it was software and avionics that seemingly sealed the fate of the program when it was run by tech folks! Of all the things that could have failed... They figured out friction stir welding well enough to certify and get a production certificate, and that is a major success! If they were just reasonable enough to buy OTS Garmin, or at most, lightly-customized, they might still be around and have 1000 jets out there.