Project Canada Flight Proves Wing Concept

One Aviation said last Friday that it successfully flew an aircraft carrying the proof of concept wing shape of the new EA700 Project Canada from the company's Albuquerque headquarters. GAMA president Pete Bunce said this flight represents the leading edge of the eventual certification of the EA700 under the new Part 23.

The modified wing included the four-foot wing span extension with the original EA550's tip tanks removed to match the shape of the wing to be used on the new EA700 still under development. The final shaping of the wing tips for the EA700 was not included on this test aircraft although the wing did include a reshaped inboard wing airfoil and planform.

One Aviation told Flying the first flight lasted 1.3 hours and followed a series of high-speed taxi tests conducted the day before. The aircraft, N990NE climbed as high as 15,000 feet to evaluate aircraft handling qualities with the landing gear up down, as well as retracted and also in all flap configurations. Jerry Chambers, Director, Flight Test/Chief Test Pilot and PIC for the flight said, "This is a key milestone for the wing design effort as we verify our predicted performance data with flight data." Friday's flight used a modified EA550 airframe that retained the original fuselage, engines and stabilizers.

The production EA700 will feature a 14-inch cabin stretch making room for a fourth cabin window, a Garmin G3000 cockpit and additional fuel capacity. One Aviation is the parent company to Eclipse Aerospace.