Eclipse Aviation, manufacturer of the Eclipse 500 jet, and Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI) have announced a strategic partnership where FHI will manufacture the complete wing assembly for the aircraft.

In addition, as part of a long-term agreement, Eclipse has agreed to license its friction stir welding process to FHI for use in the 500 wing assemblies, as well as other potential applications with FHI’s manufacturing operations.

President and ceo of Eclipse, Vern Raeburn, said: “The relationship with Fuji Heavy Industries marks an important milestone in our programme as we not only partner with an aerospace leader to manufacture a major sub-assembly, but also gain significant validation for the friction stir welding process.”

Eclipse has pioneered the use of friction stir welding in high-volume production of thin-gauge aluminium and is the first to use the process to build primary aircraft structures.

Meanwhile, Eclipse says it has retired its first test aircraft after successfully completing a 54-hour test programme.

Testing confirmed that the aircraft requires no significant redesigns and remains on track for certifi-cation in 2006.

“This aeroplane has not only enabled our engineers to validate all of the aerodynamic data that was predicted in the wind tunnel but has also given us the valuable information we need to start building our certification and production aircraft,” commented Vern Raeburn.

In addition to traditional testing of stabilities and stalls, specific tests were conducted for ‘parameter identification’. The tests, says Eclipse, provided deeper insight into the characteristic behaviour of the aircraft and resulted in more accurate extrapolation of the flight envelope that was not explored by

the test aircraft.