History of Eclipse Aviation

And the trauma will linger for years as investors, rightly terrified by the Eclipse disaster, refuse to put money into new airplane programs that can really work.

As soon as they stopped (which has been happening for the past 12 months), reality caught up to Eclipse ...[2] AVweb Editor-in-Chief Russ Niles stated: [Eclipse CEOs] Raburn and then Roel Pieper, who toppled him in a palace coup worthy of the finest Flashman novel, have spent the last six years explaining, apologizing, maneuvering and, ultimately, cutting and running on buyers, investors and employees who believed an impossible dream.

Raburn and his team initially based the company in Scottsdale, Arizona, formed a board of directors in 1999 and started design work on the first aircraft.

... the selection committee's criteria included recognition of the rich heritage of the Collier Trophy, and 'the spirit of entrepreneurship, technical innovation, and the impact on American aviation,' exemplified by the Eclipse 500.

The four-seat aircraft was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F turbofan and was built in secrecy at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia by Swift Engineering and Basis.

Day-to-day setbacks are inevitable, but the reality is that we have created a new aircraft category and are bringing a new breed of jet to market at a rate never before seen in general aviation.

"[24] Lucibella retained attorney Norman Malinski and filed a motion in the Superior Court of California to prevent Google from releasing contributors' private information.

[30] On August 3, 2008, after Vern Raburn's removal from the company, the new management at Eclipse dropped the non-disclosure legal actions against Google and the bloggers, under terms set by defending attorney Malinski.

[32] On Wednesday 20 August 2008 Hampson Aerospace closed its Grand Prairie production plant, leaving Eclipse without a supplier of tail sections.

The city previously provided a number of incentives to convince Eclipse to locate in Albuquerque, including $45 million in industrial revenue bonds issued in 2004 and $770,000 in property tax abatements.

Governor Bill Richardson indicated on 22 August 2008 that he didn't believe the situation was hopeless, stating: "I've been assured by the president of Eclipse that these jobs will eventually come back ...

Ice Blue Air, of London, had ordered an Eclipse 500 in 2006 and indicated that, due to the price increases, they were entitled to a refund as stipulated in the purchase agreement.

The company's operations also suffered as a result of Eclipse Aviation's alleged failure to install missing equipment or functionality or repair agreed technical discrepancies in accordance with the terms of DayJet's aircraft purchase contract.

With credit markets in the midst of a major crisis, Eclipse Aviation is seeking funding at a time when bankers and investors are reluctant to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a company facing an uncertain future."

[64][65] Former CEO Vern Raburn spoke at the VLJ forum held in West Palm Beach, Florida on 12 November 2008, indicating that he no longer had any connection to the company.

"[66] On 13 November 2008 the company employees were called to a 6 am meeting by Eclipse President of Manufacturing, Peg Billson and told that they would not be paid for the past two weeks' work.

[73] On 20 November 2008 Eclipse announced a reduction in company hours for maintenance scheduling, technical services and customer care to Monday to Friday 0700-1900 MST.

In conjunction with the announcement of EASA certification, Eclipse spokesperson Alana McCarraher indicated that the past two weeks had been challenging, but said of employee morale: "We're just all celebrating, today."

The company stated that it was "seeking court approval for debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing and procedures for the sale of substantially all of its assets under Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code."

In addition to damages and a declaratory judgment of ownership of the aircraft or the return of the money paid, the plaintiffs in the case alleged unjust enrichment, conversion and tortious interference.

Court documents filed by Eclipse 400 position holders as part of the bankruptcy hearings alleged 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.

In response New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson instructed the state Department of Workforce Solutions to provide extra resources to help the furloughed employees.

Industry observers questioned the role of Roel Pieper in that company's bid as he was the subject of several legal actions in the failed Chapter 11 take-over and also for not meeting the federal 60-day notice regulations for laying off employees.

The Eclipse Owners Group, representing members of the aircraft type club, announced that they had signed a Letter of Intent with Hawker Beechcraft to provide services in the event that the EOG wins the assets.

Working with the EOG, Randall Sanada, chairman of Jet-Alliance, also stated that his company was planning to acquire the 28 ex-DayJet aircraft that remained unsold, with the aim of making them available to Eclipse position holders at a discounted price.

Without approval to pay for a bid and hopefully create an action "the Trustee will most likely be forced to abandon or liquidate the Eclipse Assets on a piece meal basis.

In analyzing the long-term results of the Eclipse Aviation development, Richard Aboulafia, Vice President, Analysis, Teal Group, stated: In addition to the economic cost, this program and related air taxi schemes have had a toxic impact on a broad range of political and governmental entities.

[2] J. Mac McClellan, Editor in Chief of Flying Magazine concluded about the Eclipse case: A disaster of this size has many causes, but the most fundamental was a fantasy about the economics of designing, building and supporting airplanes.

With general aviation under the gun from all corners, this kind of collapse will only make it harder to rebuild an industry that has not only been pummeled by the market forces affecting all business but has been unfairly tarred as a symbol of greed and waste.

[3] Writing in September 2009 after the bankruptcy sale of the company's assets, Paul Bertorelli, AVweb Editorial Director said: The most spectacular [VLJ concept] failure has been Eclipse, which tanked for a multitude of reasons related to hubris, out-of-control costs, inappropriate technology and just ordinary mismanagement, in my estimation.