New Eclipse Aerospace soaring higher

(KRQE) ALBUQUERQUE - Only a few months after rising from the wreckage of its corporate predecessor Eclipse Aerospace is growing, hiring dozens more employees and talking about resuming sales of its small passenger jets in the next few weeks.

Eclipse Aerospace officially opened in September with 15 employees, a stark contrast to the 800-plus employees that were part of Eclipse Aviation before declared bankruptcy and went out of business

After buying the remaining assets in the bankruptcy sale, Eclipse Aerospace has now grown to 60 employees, 48 of whom are stationed here in Albuquerque with the rest in Chicago, according to the company's Web site . The company also says it is continuing to add mechanics and engineers as quickly as they can.

For now the company isn't building new jets but is servicing the 250 EA500 light jets produced in Albuquerque before the bankruptcy. The company also is upgrading 28 jets that were under contract to be sold but turned back over to Eclipse Aviation before the company folded.

Eclipse Aerospace expects to deliver at least two of those planes to new customers in mid January and the 26 others by the spring.

Along with upgrading planes, Eclipse recently received FAA approval to begin selling and distributing parts from the Albuquerque location and approval to conduct pilot training for its customers.

Eclipse officials aid they still hopes to begin building and selling new jets in the future but have said all along growing this company back to what it once was it going to take a lot of time.

Interest in the Eclipse 500 remains high, according to the company, which said it is receiving 30-40 calls a week from potential buyers.