joel payne

Hand writing on the wall ?

Forecast Predicts Eclipse 500 Shutdown | AVIATION WEEK

Cubdriver

The crux of the matter is:

"...The business jet market overall is also entering a period in which demand is expected to contract sharply in the near term, cutting sales for every participant in the VLJ market..."

When the economy is down, spending on premium services such as air taxi services will be down as well.

Eclipse represents a sign of the times in the present age. They had a great product with the first VLJ, and a strong business model based on good reasoning, but one which requires a strong climate in which to succeed. The gamble Eclipse made was for an economy that would hold up long enough to sell the jets it had on backlog as pre-orders while it progressed into "economies of scale" as the venture matured. There was a host of teething pains as we know, Vern Rabun's departure as an example; but the real danger for Eclipse was the downturned economy which represented an inescapable death sentence because luxury items go south when people are worried about cash. It will be a miracle if the company survives at this point. The lesson is that anyone can make a good airplane, but only the truly fortunate can make one that is truly successful.

Navajo31

Eclipse will have to go Chapter 11, dump the contracts to deliver at the $1.52 million price and start selling at a realistic $2.15 million.

Of course, the 2,000 airplane backlog will become less than 200 when it's all said and done.

flyn243

Haven't seen it on the national news, but Eclipse employees where told today (11/13/08) they they would not be paid for the last 2.5 weeks worth of work.

KOB.com - Unpaid Eclipse employees worry about future

The 500 was a fun jet to fly, and i was looking for ward to the 400.

Ziggy

The economy has hit everyone pretty hard. However, Eclipe's problems started well before. They took a Microsoft approach to the aviation market, figuring that you could quickly release a product and fix the big issues later.

flyn243

It's over

KOB.com - Eclipse seeking Chapter 7 bankruptcy

usmc-sgt

I just read an interesting article on this situation. Not really a shame if you think about it. Those who have airplanes have worthless airplanes that are less than capable at best. They can get their airplanes up to par but it will need a very costly list of mods and who is going to even do them? Others who put down deposits and are waiting will be out of the money completely unless they get lucky with this chapter 7 which it doesnt look like.

Looking deeper look at companies like Linear air who practically bet their existence on this VLJ..I do not know the numbers but they had a lot of money in this deal and ended up with only 2 or so of the early model worthless jets.

Cubdriver

One of my college pals put down deposits on 5 of them and I bet he is having a bad day right about now. He never got a single airplane. The EclipseJet was going to be the bread and butter bird for the air taxi industry, and even if they can swing the loss they still have to find a jet at a time when banks are hoarding most of the money they have. EclipseJet turned out to be a false hope for these companies, and along with the recession it may kill the entire industry.

BeezerJg34

Agreed. Eclipse sealed their own fate even before the strong economic downturn. The list of problems (avionics, mechanical issues) did not help its cause. Had Eclipse rolled out a more reliable product, they may have had a chance. I agree, the economy didnt help, but even now the Eclipse would have been a viable low cost (in comparison to other light jets) option for private companies/charter operators and could have survived this economic turmoil. The jet was a great idea that became a sub-par product.

Pitts S2B

That's funny that you use the Microsoft analogy. Weren't they actively involved in the company in some way? Or one of their senior execs?? I know the flight deck software was originally slated to be a microsoft product. Great idea executed poorly....

Where is Vern Raeburn now? Anyone know?