EBAN has spoken to Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation about the reaction its new 500 aircraft has provoked in Europe. While US certification is planned for June 2003 - and first customer delivery for August of that year - Eclipse says it will then concentrate on European certification for its six-place aircraft.

"Some of our early customers are based in Europe and we've had a lot of interest from that region," said vp of engineering Oliver Masefield. "Within Europe, we expect it to be most popular in the UK, Germany and France, then throughout Scandinavia, into central Europe and beyond. We see no limits."

"We haven't guaranteed a date for certification in Europe yet. It has a really very fast track on the American certification and then we'll be taking it to the JAA after that."

While Eclipse believes its twin turbofan aircraft offers the customer a very economical means of transport - at a list price of $837,500 in June 2000 dollars, "the price of the Eclipse is less than that of a piston engine Baron to date" - Masefield says it will serve the traditional business aviation market, that of the air taxi providers and that of the private individual. He said: "For a single person operating it, you can go to where you want to go for the price of an airline ticket. If you have a couple of people, it's even cheaper."

Furthermore, Eclipse has increased the proposed maximum range of the 500 jet. The extended range option uses two removable tip tanks which increase the range from 1,600nm to 1,825nm.

Eclipse intends to pioneer the use of friction stir welding (FSW) for lightweight materials used in the Eclipse 500. Said Masefield: "The benefits of friction stir welding are numerous. It eliminates the need for thousands of rivets, resulting in reduced assembly costs. It also produces stronger, lighter and more efficient joints than the traditional process."