Eclipse Plans to Resume Selling New Aircraft This Year

Eclipse Aerospace LLC, which acquired the rights to the former Eclipse Aircraft Co. last August, reports it is upgrading and completing 28 new Eclipse 500s it acquired as part of the deal. The new company, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, expects to be selling the factory-new aircraft as early as this spring. Investors Mike Press and Mason Holland Jr. bought the assets to the company from bankruptcy for a reported $40 million. They have since hired 60 employees (including a dozen for the company service center in Chicago) and are in the process of upgrading eight existing customer aircraft to the most current configuration (at a reported cost of $149,000). That includes upgraded avionics and deicing systems. The new owners have also received FAA approval for a revised training program that uses the aircraft rather than simulators, as did the previous program. The new Eclipse supports the current fleet of 259 Eclipse 500s, and is acting as broker for 10 used jets.