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Forbes Flying The World's Smallest Business Jet
Visit
the factory of Eclipse Aviation, as I did in May, and you'll see how large a bet
founder and CEO Vern Raburn has made on very light jets. At
the time of my visit, Eclipse's Albuquerque, N.M., factory had 57 airplanes
in various phases of construction. Raburn says that he'll ship 250 or more
this year, and that Eclipse will be ''the world's volume jet leader'' in
2008. The company claims 1,000-plus cash deposits from owner-pilots and 1,500
or so orders from air taxi operators such as DayJet. On this particular day,
some investment bankers from New York were prowling the factory floor. Raburn
has a reputation for making boastful statements, but delivering numbers like
that would be a feat unprecedented in the high-capital-cost, highly regulated
business aircraft industry. Can
he do it? An afternoon at the controls makes me think he can. Fast
But Silly Simple With
Eclipse Aviation test pilot Terry Tomeny sitting in the right seat, I flew
the newly certified Eclipse 500 off Albuquerque Sunport's Runway 8. The May
morning was cool and cloudy, odd for Albuquerque. All planes perform better
in cooler weather, and soon I had the Eclipse climbing at a leisurely 2,000
feet per minute at 190 nautical miles per hour. We leveled off at 17,000 feet
and watched the speed build to 280 knots. The Eclipse reaches its top cruise
speed of 370 knots at 33,000 feet and can fly to 41,000 feet. At
17,000 feet, Tomeny took the controls and cut the power. Then he dropped the
landing gear and both notches of flaps. With no thrust and plenty of drag, we
rapidly slowed to 100 knots, then 80 knots. At 70 knots a female voice
sounded in our headsets: ''Warning. Stall. Warning. Stall.'' Two seconds
later, just before we would have stalled and started a death spiral to earth,
the jet's control stick moved forward, and the airplane began to pick up
speed, averting the stall. ''Did
you push the stick?'' I asked Tomeny. ''No,
that's automatic,'' he replied. In
the seven or so years that I've been flying, I've put in more than 2,000
hours at the stick of single-engine piston airplanes, including a Beechcraft
Bonanza, two Cessnas and, most recently, a sleek Cirrus SR22 that I've owned
for 18 months. I
have flown jets twice, a Citation CJ1+ in 2005 and last year an Eclipse 500
still in its test stage. Both times I lit the jet's engines, taxied out,
lined up on the runway and took off. Takeoffs
are easy. Just push the throttle forward, keeping the nose wheel on the
centerline with rudder-pedal steering. Upon reaching a speed known as V2 (a
calculation based on thrust, weight aboard the plane, airport elevation and
outside temperature), pull back on the yoke, and away you go. But never
before had I landed a jet. Until
now. I
made my first at a nearby airport called Double Eagle II. I trimmed the
Eclipse to 90 knots down final approach and pulled power to idle at about 50
feet above the ground. Normally, this is when a pilot begins gently lifting
the nose in what is called a flare. The idea is to touch down on the main
wheels, not the nose. But Tomeny wanted to show how the Eclipse could land
without flaring. So no flare. The landing was firm but well within control.
The Eclipse's trailing link gear forgives even the ham-fisted landing. Next
we flew a couple of boxed patterns off of Runway 22. At 800 feet off the
ground, I did a right 90-degree crosswind turn and pulled the power way back.
Tomeny had me fly the downwind leg parallel to the runway at 150 knots. Abeam
the runway numbers I pulled the power to idle, dropping the gear and the
first notch of flaps. Tomeny instructed me to hold altitude and slow to 115
knots, which happened fast. At
115 knots I started a base turn and dropped the landing flaps. The goal was
to roll out on final at 90 knots, and I found I needed to add some power to
hold at that speed. The good news: no spool-up lag. Power is instant. When
Yankees catcher Thurman Munson died in 1979 in a fire after crashing short of
the runway in his then brand-new Citation 501, a power lag was to blame. Had
today's computer-controlled jet engines been around in 1979, Munson would
likely be alive and flying today. I
held 90 knots all the way down final and pulled to idle at 50 feet off the
ground. Ever so slightly I pulled the nose up in a flare and rolled the jet
right on the main wheels. Wow.
Perfection was that easy! We flew another pattern--rolled it on again. The
$1.6 million Eclipse is a simple plane to fly in all phases of flight. The
three-passenger jet--it seats four aft of the cockpit, but air taxi operators
such as DayJet are going with three passenger seats--is fast enough to fit
with the jumbo jets at O'Hare and slow enough to slip into the pattern with
Pipers and Bonanzas at tiny general aviation airports. The Eclipse 500 lands
and stops in less than 2,300 feet. Eclipse's
top cruise speed is an impressive 370 knots at 33,000 feet, burning 90 gallons
per hour. Better yet is the jet's 330-knot economy cruise speed, attained at
altitudes between 38,000 and 41,000 feet. Fuel burn at that setting is a
stingy 55 gallons per hour. No other jet comes close to being this
environmentally friendly. On a no-wind day, the Eclipse can fly two
passengers and luggage more than 1,200 nautical miles nonstop and still have
an hour of fuel reserve. The
very light jet category looks ready for takeoff. |