The aircraft was intended to compete with the Cirrus Vision SF50, the Piper PA-47 PiperJet, the Epic Victory, and the Diamond D-Jet in the single-engine jet market.

It was built in complete secrecy at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia by Swift Engineering and BaySys Technologies.

[4] At the time of its announcement the company said that the aircraft would have an expected cruise speed of 345 kn (639 km/h) at 41,000 ft (12,497 m) with an IFR range of 1,250 nmi (2,315 km).

While today we have no production plans for the ECJ, we are constantly evaluating markets for future Eclipse products…we are anxious to reveal the potential of this emerging category, and out opportunity to add real value to it.

[5][6] At AirVenture in July 2008, new Eclipse CEO Roel Pieper confirmed that if sufficient orders were placed for the 400, production would commence in 2011.

[9][10][11][12][13] Court documents filed by Eclipse 400 position holders as part of the bankruptcy hearings allege that the company misappropriated the US$3.2M collected from depositors, did not escrow it as contracted to do so and refused to refund it when required to.