Eclipse 'fires' Williams

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Here is what was on avweb for those who did not see this News Coverage At .RABURN SPEAKS -- ECLIPSE AND WILLIAMS PART COMPANY...Although its problems with the EJ22 engine were hardly a secret, Eclipse stunned personal jet watchers this week when it announced that it will terminate Williams International as the engine supplier for the Eclipse 500 mini-jet. Eclipse said Williams' developmental work was behind schedule and the engine simply wasn't delivering the thrust Williams promised it would. Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn said yesterday that his company also had concerns about durability and reliability of the EJ22, which would be used in high-hour, high-cycle operations in the air-taxi biz. "What had become clear was that the engine had no growth potential in it. It couldn't have additional thrust without major developmental work," Raburn said....BUT OTHER ENGINE MAKERS WANT THE WORKIf you think this development threatens to toss the Eclipse project into the Edsel File, you won't hear Raburn say as much. He reported yesterday that "two Fortune 100 companies" are vying to supply enginesfor Eclipse 500 and that the choice will be announced in about twoweeks. While the replacement engines are likely to be both heavier and thirstier, Raburn says they'll also deliver more thrust -- so he's sticking to his guns on the original range and payload claims for theEclipse. And how about that under-$1 million sales price? Raburn says that still applies, too. He told AVweb "there's absolutely no way" the Eclipse will cost more than $1 million.NOTE: See AVweb's NewsWire at for more...