An investor group on Friday submitted a $40 million plan to a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware to purchase what is left of Eclipse Aviation and resume aircraft production and maintenance in Albuquerque.

Mayor Martin Chávez said the group has formed a new company called Eclipse Aerospace and expects its purchase offer to close Aug. 24. The mayor would not disclose how much Eclipse Aerospace intends to bid for the assets, but court documents show the group has offered $20 million in cash and $20 million in notes secured by assets of the business.

The court will hear the Eclipse Aerospace motion to purchase the assets Aug. 10. Chávez said during a news conference that he knows of no other potential bidders. At one time, at least four groups were considering offers.

"We're about 98 percent certain that Eclipse Aviation has been saved," Chávez said.

The mayor said he expects the revived Eclipse to employ hundreds of people when operations resume in a few months but probably not the 800 to 1,000 people who worked there before the company entered bankruptcy proceedings last November.

In addition to manufacturing the old Eclipse Aviation's very light jet, Eclipse Aerospace intends to provide training and service for the aircraft in Albuquerque, Chávez said. Servicing will resume immediately after the court approves the investor group's offer, he said.

The city has agreed to lease for $1.2 million a year the same city-owned buildings at the Sunport and Double Eagle airport to Eclipse Aerospace that it leased to Eclipse Aviation.

The investor group includes Mason R. Holland Jr., chairman of insurance benefits software company Benefitfocus of Charleston, S.C., Mike Press, president and CEO of Single-Pilot Jet Management in Chesterfield, Mo., Raul Segredo, president and CEO of Miami-based Avionica, a provider of aircraft data communications products and services, and John Cracken, a managing director of Cracken, Harkey & Co., a Dallas-based private equity firm.

Chávez acknowledged that other proposals to purchase Eclipse have fallen through, including a purchase plan by a ETIRC Aviation, a Luxembourg-based company that sold and serviced Eclipse jets in Europe and was an investor in Eclipse Aviation. That proposal collapsed when ETIRC itself entered bankruptcy proceedings.

The Eclipse Aerospace plan appears to be solid because after the failure of other proposals the bankruptcy court ruled it would accept only unconditional proposals that were fully funded, requirements Eclipse Aerospace has met, Chávez said.

At the time it filed for bankruptcy court protection, Eclipse Aviation owed creditors $1 billion. The state of New Mexico had invested $19 million in the company, including $5 million in secured senior debt.

Eclipse moved to Albuquerque 11 years ago with plans to build inexpensive light jets that would revolutionize the aircraft industry, but it couldn't build and sell its jets fast enough for enough money to cover expenses and sustain its debt load.