Eclipse Crosses Atlantic to Woo European Market

Eclipse Aviation's $1.5 million jet has completed its first trans-Atlantic flight.

Company pilots left Albuquerque on Saturday and landed in Friedrichshafen, Germany, on Thursday. They made stops in Canada, Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom.

The plane made its European debut at AERO 2007, a general aviation trade show that began Thursday in Friedrichshafen, near Germany's border with Switzerland.

Eclipse has flown jets to Canada and Mexico. The Eclipse 500 has a range of 1,125 nautical miles on one tank of fuel.

In the coming months, the jet will be used for flight demonstrations and will appear at other European trade shows, including the EUR-AVIA convention in Cannes, France, on April 27, and the European Business Aviation Conference and Exposition, or EBACE, in Geneva on May 22.

"Europe is such a great market for the Eclipse 500 because of its superior performance and efficiency to anything else offered today," said Andrew Broom, director of public relations for the Albuquerque company.

Eclipse has 100 orders for its twin-engine jets in Europe, he said.

Eclipse received Federal Aviation Administration certification for the 500 in September and expects European Aviation Safety Agency certification by the end of 2007.

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