Dubai 2011: Son of Eclipse shines in Dubai

Only last week MEBAA chairman Ali Al Naqbi called for operators in the region to look at the lighter jet market as way of fuelling more growth. The surprise news of the approval for the revamped variant of the $2.2 million Eclipse Aerospace Eclipse 500 came just a month after FAA certification.

The VLJ is marketed across the Middle East by Turkey’s EA Aerospace and the company’s executive vice president EMEA, Ekim Alptekin said:

“Many assumed the UAE was an unlikely market for the Total Eclipse. We are proud to prove them wrong. With these orders local businessmen prove that they care about efficiency as much as anyone else.”

Alptekin said one aircraft would be used by a high net worth individual, while others would go to a proposed air taxi operation.

“This vindicates the decision we made to go on,” said Alptekin. “It’s all about personalisation.  This aircraft can do for transportation what the mobile phone did for communications industry.

Eclipse Aerospace acquired the assets of bankrupt Eclipse Aviation two years ago and has steadily built up a new programme to get the VLJ back into production. The Total Eclipse is a fully-configured EA500 aircraft that can fly to 41,000ft. Each aircraft for sale is pre-owned and factory certified with an all-new Avio integrated flight management system.

The OEM is now working on a higher-spec version, the Eclipse 550, which is set for entry into service in 2013.