Analysis: FAA's Rush to Certify First VLJ

Air Safety Week, Sept 22, 2008

Indeed, DOT's Scovel pointed out that, in a highly unusual move, Eclipse was the only VLJ manufacturer to receive ODAR authorization before the aircraft was approved. "It would have been difficult for them to have the expertise necessary to do that job prior to certification," he said.

"The FAA's inspection of the airplane indicated that Eclipse neglected to adequately inspect the airplane before making application for an airworthiness certificate, and thus possibly violated FAA regulations by making an apparent false statement on the FAA forms," said Ford Lauer III, manager of the FAA Manufacturing Inspection District Office (MIDO) in San Antonio, who was so concerned about what was happening in the certification process that he took out personal liability insurance. "It was determined that an investigation should be initiated for a possible violation of federal regulations."

The hearing certainly casts new light on the sudden departure of Eclipse Founder Vern Raburn. At the very least, testimony characterizes Eclipse as putting both type and production certification ahead of quality and safety controls, which could erode its customer confidence. Indeed, Eclipse's pronouncements of how it brought the Eclipse 500 to market in record time takes on a whole new meaning.

A New York Times article indicated that Raburn suggested FAA did not have the expertise to certify such a new technology aircraft, something echoed by Peg Billson, president and general manager of the manufacturing division. "...Raburn said his company had clashed with the FAA staff because the technology was 'pushing the envelope' for small planes, and the FAA staff members in charge of such planes had little experience with advanced electronics or new assembly techniques," he wrote. "Sometimes the F.A.A. staff members handling the certification would tell him, 'I don't like it because I don't understand it.'" That could be read two ways - either the FAA, which certifies sophisticated aircraft systems all the time, is incompetent or there is something wrong at Eclipse.

A process that should have taken three years, took five, according to testimony. While FAA holds this up as indicating additional scrutiny, inspectors suggest Eclipse just didn't know what it was doing. Judging from the number of aircraft presented as ready for certification by FAA designees at Eclipse, which failed FAA's inspection with numerous serious failures and non-compliance issues, they make a good case; a case buoyed by the number of service difficulty reports and incidents and accidents requiring investigation by the NTSB.

Tom Haueter, director of the Safety Board's Office of Aviation Safety, has conducted five investigations involving Eclipse 500 airplanes since service entry early last year. One occurred three years ago while the other four have occurred since April. The investigations are still ongoing.

Scovel reported that Service Difficulty Reports (SDRs) between June 2007 and July 2008, the largest user - DayJet - submitted 84 SDRs for 28 Eclipse aircraft. "While SDRs are to be expected with any new aircraft, the fact that many of those reported for the EA-500 appear to relate back to design issues [raised prior to certification] is troubling," he said. "As a result of [the Midway] incident, FAA engineers re-examined the software that controls the engines and discovered software logic flaws that should have been resolved before design certification." Haueter reiterated NSTB concerns, saying the board was surprised throttle issue was not found by certification pilots.