Eclipse Aero Says It Has about 3 Years of Parts in Stock

After parts supplier Resurgent Aviation Solutions (RAS) announced plans to shut down and auction off its remaining inventory, due to no buyer coming forward to keep the company going, Eclipse Aerospace assured owners of its very light jets that the company has enough supply on hand for the next two to three years.

RAS president Cary Winter had warned Eclipse owners that he planned to retire in 2025 and offered the company for sale, but none of those interested were able to come to agreeable terms. A major sticking point was that Winter and his colleagues wanted to retire rather than keep running the business. “They wanted me to sign up to work for five more years,” he told AIN.

At the mid-May Eclipse Jet Owners and Pilots Association (EJOPA) convention in Hot Springs, Virginia, Winter announced the upcoming shutdown of RAS and the parts auction via a livestreamed presentation. Afterwards, Eclipse Aerospace COO Ed Lundeen assured attendees that the company is well-stocked. “I know the inventory, and I know the average annual usage,” he said, and there is enough to keep the fleet going for another two to three years. “We’re not going out of business, and we’re well-funded. Our intention is to support them for longer, absolutely.”

Lundeen admitted that autopilot components and the aircraft computer system are in tight supply, although Eclipse Aerospace owns airplanes that it can use to provide parts. Meanwhile, at the EJOPA convention, the company shared plans to develop a new integrated avionics suite to replace the jet’s Innovative Aerosystems (formerly Innovative Solutions & Support) Avio IFMS avionics. The goal is to offer Eclipse owners a new avionics system that runs on an industry-standard databus, instead of the original design’s Byteflight databus, which isn’t common in aviation. The new package will also enable added features, according to Lundeen.

Innovative Aerosystems does support Eclipse owners and still offers upgrades to Avio IFMS, such as synthetic vision and autothrottles.

“We’ve been working on this for the last year,” Lundeen said, “buffering our inventory to ensure continuity of supply. I want our customers to be confident they’re going to fly for an indefinite period of time.”

Eclipse 500 owner Victor Girgenti, who bought his jet in 2013, was at the mid-May EJOPA meeting and watched Cary Winter’s livestream. “Obviously, everybody was upset,” he said, but then Ed Lundeen spoke and reassured owners that support will continue. In a Facebook post, Eclipse urged owners to continue working with the three Eclipse support centers in the U.S. “for ongoing maintenance and fleet support rather than attempting to independently stockpile parts. An internal inventory review…confirmed that the company maintains multiple years of supply for several critical components, including autopilot servos and other high-priority systems.”

One result of the livestream, according to Girgenti, is that two groups have formed to try to acquire RAS, after Winter publicly revealed a price for the company.

Girgenti’s Eclipse 500 has been a reliable jet. “I never had any issues,” he said, except for a generator failure before takeoff one day. It turned out to be the generator control unit, and Eclipse shipped him one the next day. His autopilot servos are in good shape, but he’s not worried because Eclipse says it has those in stock.

Despite Eclipse Aerospace’s recommendation that owners not stock their own parts, Girgenti has purchased material over the years, including electronics and systems components. One item that he worries about is the airplane’s smart pitot tubes, made by HarcoSemco. Although he hasn’t had any problems, “I would love to get rid of the smart pitot tubes. They’re expensive to overhaul.”

Girgenti is happy with the service provided by Innovative Aerosystems and the company’s extended warranty program. “It’s good to know you have that coverage.” That said, one feature that he would like to see with the new avionics package is an automatic landing system like Garmin’s Autoland. “It would make my wife a lot more comfortable,” he said.

“I just love this plane. It’s a marvel of engineering. I can fly from Long Island to West Palm Beach and burn 180 gallons, at 41,000 feet above the weather where it’s quiet and comfortable.”