Eclipse Aviation Delivers Its First VLJ

Eclipse Aviation, the company founded by former Microsoft executive and Seattle resident Vern Raburn, has finally delivered its first plane.

Raburn had all but promised that after a series of certification setbacks, the first plane would be delivered in 2006. He just made it. On Sunday, New Year's Eve, the first Eclipse 500 was delivered to its co-owners, David Crowe and Jet-Alliance, a shared-jet operator in Westlake Village, Calif. Crowe and Jet-Alliance will both use the plane.

In the coming days, Eclipse will hold a delivery ceremony at the company's headquarters in Albuquerque, N.M.

"For many years, the promise of this day has fueled the passion and perseverance of everyone associated with Eclipse," Raburn, the president and chief executive of Eclipse Aviation, said in a statement.

"As we deliver the first Eclipse 500, our dream of opening up the world of private jet travel to a new realm of customers has become a reality."

Before he decided to spend - some would say gamble - his money making jets, Raburn made his reputation and fortune in the software and high-tech world.

Raburn was Microsoft's 18th employee in the late 1970s. He and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates remain good friends, and Gates is one of the investors in Eclipse Aviation.

In 1990, Raburn started the Slate Corp. by raising money from venture capitalists to develop and market a hand- held computer similar to what would later be the successful Palm Pilot. Slate failed, and Raburn went to work in Seattle for his old friend Paul Allen as president of the Paul Allen Group.

He later left and founded Eclipse Aviation, persuading Gates and some of his other high-tech friends (although not Allen) to invest about $250 million in the project.

The goal has been to produce a cheap jet that will transform business jet travel.

The cheapest business jet today goes for just under $4 million. The Eclipse 500 price tag has gone up slightly in the last couple of years, from just under $1 million to about $1.52 million today.

Some critics had wondered if the Eclipse 500 jet would turn out to be Raburn's Spruce Goose, the large, ill-fated seaplane developed by another billionaire, Howard Hughes. In 1947, the Spruce Goose made its one and only very short flight before becoming a joke - and eventually a museum piece.

Raburn's jet flew for the first time in August 2002 but was immediately grounded because the 85-pound Williams International jet engines - the key technology to a lightweight, inexpensive jet - did not perform as hoped. Eclipse Aviation and Williams parted ways, and Raburn turned to Pratt & Whitney of Canada.

Raburn had vowed that his plane would fly again before the end of 2004 with the Pratt engines.

He made the deadline by a few hours - just as he made his deadline for first delivery in 2006 by only a few hours.

The six-seat jet (five passengers and a pilot) is supposed to be able to cruise at about 400 mph at 40,000 feet with a range of 1,300 nautical miles.

Raburn's vision is an air-taxi service for the masses. Tens of thousands of these air limos, operating from about 5,000 small local airports around the country, would pick up passengers and haul them directly to their destination, for about the cost of an airline coach seat.

Eclipse Aviation faces a handful of competitors that are developing very light jets. The Federal Aviation Administration has estimated that as many as 5,000 very light jets will be in operation within 10 years.

Eclipse Aviation had hoped to get its new jet certified by the FAA in late 2003, clearing the way for production to begin in 2004. The plan was to mass-produce as many as 1,000 of the planes per year in a state-of-the-art factory in Albuquerque, which was the first home of Microsoft when Gates and Allen founded the company.

Eclipse said that it has 37 aircraft in various stages of assembly and has an order backlog of about 2,500.

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