Aurora, Illinois-based Resurgent Aviation Solutions, the only company that makes certain airworthiness-critical parts for Eclipse 500 and 550 aircraft, is going out of business and there doesn’t seem to be anyone waiting in the wings to fill the void. In fact, according to JetForums.net, the loss of supply of autopilot servos alone could spell the end for the entire fleet of 260 aircraft over the next eight years. An auction of new and rebuilt parts begins Friday and stock is limited. “We would suggest assuming that every item of interest is the last one, as it may well be,” RAS said in a statement to JetForums.net. There is a limited supply of the autopilot servos and it’s expected that 30 aircraft will be grounded per year without another source for them.
RAS has been trying to sell its business for several months, but there have been no takers. “We understand our place in the Eclipse ecosystem, and the void liquidation will create,” the company said. “We have been working for the last few months on making the liquidation process as efficient as possible and creating as many opportunities for you to keep your aircraft flying as possible. We can only share in your disappointment that we have reached this point.” The company says all its tooling and test equipment will be destroyed after all the airworthy parts have been sold. “As we look around the facility at all the tools and test equipment we have built, and all the inventory we have acquired, and the repair process we developed, we are truly heartbroken that we have no successor to build upon our work. We tried.”
Why destroy all the equipment and tooling…seems kind of spiteful\wasteful. I can almost guarantee, Eclipse would take it and store it.
I’m guessing but I would my money on insurance liability.
Yeah. Just give it away for free. That’s a great business model
Spiteful? They didn’t find a buyer, what are they to do with it? The machines may be useful but the custom tooling and jigs are scrap to any shop that isn’t certified to do this work, and nobody certified wanted to buy it. There’s an economic reality to liquidation, if there are no buyers and it costs money to mothball the stuff, it will inevitably be scrapped. No, I don’t want to see possibly useful tooling scrapped, nobody does, but it’s the reality of the situation and it’s not spiteful.
So sad. That airplane had such promise.
There is no Eclipse any more Stephen. I guess the type certificates will revert back to the FAA. Honda Motor Company just posted their first major loss in the company’s history. I wonder if corporate management will look more closely at the Honda Jet program?
A couple of thoughts are rattling around in my empty head:
Are jets required to have an operable autopilot?
Why don’t they sell the tooling rather than destroying it?
In Europe you need an autopilot to operate in RVSM airspace. Even if not needed elsewhere, you’re not going to have pilots’ favourite at your hands without autopilot. With 270 Eclipses built and so many STCs existing for retrofit autopilots for other types it’s hard to imagine that no other company would untertake to adapt and certify their servo products for the Eclipse.
I also wonder why they’d rather destroy their equipment than auctioning it off like the rest (as a package with STC/PMA)?
Auction it off to what buyer? The buyer must be capable of meeting the regulatory requirements or the equipment is useless to them because they can’t legally work on or manufacture the parts. The parts have a paper trail and can be auctioned off to a reseller or even a private buyer, but the equipment and processes are only useful to an operation that has the necessary certifications and personnel to do work on certified aircraft parts, and if any of those suppliers thought it would be a profitable enterprise to support the Eclipse jet, they surely would have purchased this stuff. Short of a certified shop owned by a well-moneyed enthusiast who doesn’t necessarily need it to be profitable, there is no place for it to go.
I’d assume that would be something for the buyer to consider. There seem to be other organisations that manufacture parts that are no longer available from the manufacturer and adding Eclipse parts to the portfolio might be of interest to such companies. Even if there are few potential buyers selling that stuff seems to make more sense than dumping it. If there are no bids as you predict, it can still be destroyed.
Single pilot ops in a jet requires a working autopilot. There is a lot of liability associated with making and selling ertified aircraft parts. Just doesn’t make economic sense.
What does and does not make sense depends a lot on what you earn doing it. If all those still not worthless Eclipses are grounded without that servo building one that’s cheaper than outbidding someone else on one from a finite pool might still be profitable.
I visited the factory many many years ago 2010 or so, and the outlook for the future back then was, we will probably produce a few more of a particular model and that will be about it. The doors will close. The airplane never made any sense to me from a practical standpoint. Way too small. Not enough fuel to go anywhere. Bill Gates avionics, (what kind of virus are we navigating with today?) And for the money, why not just buy a tried and true older citation with Garmin avionics?
Products of people who know very little about aviation are doomed to fail, many examples of money thrown away rather than learning from someone with expertise in the field.
Ultralights to jets have a similar history.