Eclipse 550 Light Business Jet, United States of America
Key Data
Eclipse 550 is a twin-engined, low-wing light business jet being designed and manufactured jointly by the US aircraft manufacturers Eclipse Aerospace (EA) and Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (SAC) to operate on domestic and international air routes. It is derived from the Eclipse 500 business jet. About 50 to 100 aircraft will be produced a year.
SAC purchased a minority stake in EA in February 2011. A service level agreement was also reached between SAC and EA in the same month.
As part of the agreement PZL plant, a subsidiary of SAC will supply wings, fuselage and empennage for the Eclipse 550. EA will carry out final assembly and painting of the aircraft at its Albuquerque facility in New Mexico.
Eclipse Aerospace unveiled the Eclipse 550 at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) convention held in Las Vegas, Nevada, in October 2011. The aircraft is scheduled to enter service in 2013.
Design of the light business jet
Eclipse 550 was designed by modifying the Eclipse 500. It will utilise the same airframe, engines and integrated glass cockpit of the Eclipse 500.
A number of new features such as upgraded avionics, improved cabin interiors, side stick controls, advance microprocessors, full authority and digital engine control (FADEC), autothrottles, synthetic vision and enhanced vision systems will be incorporated in the Eclipse 550.
Flight deck of the Eclipse 550
The flight deck of Eclipse 550 will accommodate two crew members. It will be equipped with two LCD simpatico primary flight displays, a multifunctional display and a navigational display to show the data pertaining to navigation, flight instrumentation, fuel and engine to the pilot.
Cabin of the American-manufactured light business jet
The spacious cabin of the Eclipse 550 can carry six passengers in tandem seating configuration. It will be equipped with leather seats, an Iridium phone, onboard oxygen generation systems, LED lightings, cabin pressurisation system and Wi-Fi-based cabin entertainment system.
The cabin will be 3.67m long and 1.42m wide. Its height will be 1.27m.
Avionics suite technology
The avionics suite installed in the Eclipse 550 will include an automatic direction finder, radar altimeter, stormscope, an attitude and heading reference system and traffic collision avoidance system.
Innovative Solutions and Support (ISS) was contracted in October 2010 to supply Avio dual integrated flight management system (IFMS). A supplemental type certificate for the IFMS was obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in March 2011.
The IFMS will minimise the workload of the pilot by acting as a virtual co-pilot. It will centrally control the avionics, engines, fuel systems, flaps, landing gear, cabin pressure and temperature.
The synthetic vision system installed in the aircraft will render the pilot with clear understanding of the flight conditions by using terrain obstacle, geo-political, hydrological and other database information.
Other avionics will encompass automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B), wide area augmentation system, an iPad data entry integration system, distance measuring equipment, global positioning system, terrain awareness and a warning system and onboard colour weather radar.
Engines on the Eclipse 500
The Eclipse 550 will be powered by two PW610F turbofan engines, each rated at 950lbf of thrust. The engine is designed and manufactured by Pratt & Whitney Canada.
It is equipped with a single-stage high pressure turbine, dual stage compressor, reverse flow combustor and Hispano-Suiza FADEC to minimise propeller noise by optimising the output speed.
The engine inlets are incorporated with engine bleed air ice protection.
The length and diameter of the engine are 1.06m and 0.35m respectively.
The Eclipse 550 will feature a tricycle type landing gear comprising two main wheels and a steerable nose wheel.
The main wheels will retract into wings and the nose wheel will resile into front fuselage section.
Performance of the jet
The Eclipse 550 can climb at the rate of 17.4m/s. The maximum and stall speeds of the aircraft will be 685km/h and 128km/h respectively. The range will be 2,084km. The service ceiling will be 12,500m. The take-off and landing distances of the aircraft will be 715m and 686m respectively.
