First Eclipse 550 Delivery

摘要

The first new production Eclipse 550 very light jet, N656FP (c 550-0265) was delivered to private owner Fred L Phillips at the Las Vegas NBAA Convention. Since Eclipse Aerospace declared bankruptcy in 2009 and closed down production, the firm has been reorganised with Sikorsky becoming a 40% shareholder. The improved Eclipse 550 brings many new features compared to the original Eclipse 500, including a synthetic vision system and autothrottles. The company expects to build two aircraft a month initially and was planned to deliver a further six by the end of 2013 at a unit price of $2,895,000 (£1,809,500).