Eclipse EA500: Smallest Ever Jet

Critics said that it wasn’t possible to successfully scale down a light jet to small-plane dimensions. Eclipse with its A500 proved those critics (mostly) wrong.

One of the greatest failures and one of the most successful programs in all of aviation history is that of the Eclipse 500 very light jet. At the time of its development, there was widespread interest in what somebody started calling very light jets, often referred to simply as VLJs. The idea is a very old one, to create a personal jet by taking the engineering framework of light jets, like Cessna's CitationJet, and making it ever smaller. Williams International commissioned Burt Rutan to build just such a jet to show off a new, very small turbofan engine. True to form, Rutan created something wild, a forward-swept wing, V-tailed jet dubbed the Williams V-Jet II. Microsoft veteran Vern Raburn fell in love with the little jet and ran with it, pouring tens of millions into its early development and ultimately coming up with an airplane that had almost nothing in common with Rutan's design.

At the same time as it was a technological tour de force, the Eclipse program as a whole was arguably the most massive failure in GA history.

Early on, the new company, Eclipse Aviation, which was (yes, past tense) based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, focused not only on the development of the airplane, which faces numerous steep challenges, but also on creating a market for it. Raburn didn't want to make a couple dozen jets a year. He wanted to build hundreds, but he knew the only way to do that was to achieve economies of scale, which isn't possible when you're turning out handfuls of planes.

It's critical to understand the enormity of the project Eclipse had entered into. It would create a sub-6,000-pound (a key weight for ease of certification) twin-jet that would be fast---it was aiming for around 370 knots, could fly high (up to the low 40s) and would be less than or slightly more than a million bucks to buy. Critics said it couldn't be done, that the very concept of the turbofan couldn't be effectively scaled down, not to mention all the systems, environmental, bleed air, anti-icing and many more, that would go into a high-flying pressurized twinjet, all of which would still have to be on the jet regardless of how small it was. Despite an engine swap (to a Pratt & Whitney PW610F), Eclipse still managed to get the 500 built and hitting most of its performance targets---that subject is a long story for a different time.

With sleek lines and impressive performance numbers, the A500 could be forgiven for its tight interior dimensions and lack of a lav.

Raburn envisioned a world in which hundreds or thousands of Eclipse jets would be used for short-haul on-demand charter. Customers would show up at the airport, hop in an Eclipse and jet off, let's say, to travel 500 nm to swap Nashville twang briefly for New Orleans swing. The tickets would be low priced, multiple strangers would share the ride, and operators would still make a buck based on the sheer number of rides and the low cost of operating the EA 500. To be clear, that marketplace didn't exist until Raburn came up with it, and as hard as he evangelized for its creation, it never happened.

The jet he envisioned did indeed happen, and it is nothing short of a marvel, with a ceiling of 41,000 feet, a fuel flow of around 60 gph (total), easy flying manners and an exterior noise level that kept neighbors happy. Eclipse was awarded a controversial provisional type certificate by the FAA in 2006, and it won the prestigious Collier Trophy for the jet that same year.

Eclipse produced 260 EA500 jets before shutting down operations in what was a billion-dollar bankruptcy. A follow-on company, Eclipse Aerospace/One Aviation, made a slightly beefed-up version, the Model 550, but only delivered 33 of them before closing its doors.

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J BeckettWriter