Eclipse broke ground on assembly building

Eclipse Aviation, manufacturer of the Eclipse 500 very light jet (VLJ), broke ground late last month on a new primary assembly building called Sunport 11. The 52,000-square-foot space will house a state-of-the-art assembly and manufacturing center, and serve as a central hub for Eclipse 500 production. The company, which expects its jet to be certified sometime later this year, will have six buildings at its Albuquerque headquarters by June of this year. Production is slated to begin in about two months, with the company hoping to ramp up to four airplanes a day.