Eclipse Aviation

Eclipse Aviation is based in New Mexico and was founded in 1998 by former Microsoft Employee Vern Raburn and Bill Gates is one of the main investors in the company.

The Eclipse 500 is one of the new VLJ (very light jets) made by Eclipse Aviation and is a small 6 seater business jet. It sells for around $1.5 million and is considered very affordable in relation to other business jets such as the Learjet that start from $10 million.
That's half the price of a Cessna Mustang.

The Eclipse is powered by two Pratt and Whitney turbofan engine that are mounted in the tail end. These are the same engines that can be found in lawn mowers but of course in a different league when it comes to performance! It can cruise at 403 mph and has a range of 1,280 miles.

The airframe required the development of radically new manufacturing techniques and Eclipse engineers fulfilled that requirement by Replacing riveting with a system of welding for the skin and underlying structure. The design calls for a composite body made from an aluminium skin laid in a mold. The structure is then built on top, just the reverse of how one typically thinks of manufacturing processes where the skin goes on last.

Reversing traditional concepts is what innovation in business jet engineering is all about and Eclipse Aviation have certainly done that in spades. Using the latest cockpit technology, with all new AVIO Avionics not often found in low cost aircraft the flight crew have the very best systems to work with.

Due to it's short landing distance of just over 2,000 ft it will be able to land at any of 10,000 airports in the U.S. This will give customers nearer departure and arrival points and will make the Eclipse ECJ one of the top "air taxi" business jets available.

Eclipse Aviation have also produced a concept plane the Eclipse ECJ which is a very light jet and was introduced at Air Adventure 2007. The company will decide within a year if it will go into production. It will be a 4 seater single engine jet which will compete with the Cirrus jet and Piper jet, both small single engine aircraft

Eclipse Aviation are expanding and have plans to build another plant in Gainsville, Florida as well as another in New York.

Eclipse has the engineering talent, the management experience, the investment muscle and most of all the vision to bring to life one of the most important changes to business jets in aviation history. In an industry whose history is full of starry-eyed dreamers with practical savvy, that's quite an achievement.