Investors in Raburn's 'Technological Transformation' Find Much To Celebrate

One of the more interesting aspects of our attendance at the Eclipse Owner's Conference was the chance to get 'up close and personal' with a number of folks who put down some serious dollars in order to invest in Raburn's dream. They were as varied a bunch as they were opinionated, but after two years of occasional turmoil and ever-intense speculation, they were (almost universally) a happy bunch. We ran into virtually every type of flyer. We ran into fairly new pilots (who don't scare us as much as the folks who think they know it all...) who were aware that they have a lot of training and experience to gather before they were going to be flying any type of jet in a single pilot role, but were looking forward to the capabilities the bird offered a few years hence.

Surprisingly, most of these low time pilots were very well aware of the challenges they faced, and they seemed more then prepared to do what was necessary to make sure that they not only learned to fly their aircraft, but also prepared to learn to operate in an increasingly complex airspace system. As a result I was impressed in my talks with low time private pilots who were as conversant on RVSM as some of the high time former airline jocks in the room. I also met a number of pilots who are currently operating high-performance single-engine and multiengine piston airplanes, who were looking forward to the reliability and performance boost inherent in jet aircraft. One attendee noted that he had learned that jet aircraft were ultimately easier to operate than a piston, once somebody had learned the requisite jet skills, but was leaving nothing to chance and already taking the time to get experience in a number of turbine and jet aircraft, so that by the time he got his Eclipse, he would have no surprises.

The most intriguing aspect of the dozens of conversations we had that day were the uniformly positive impressions voiced by those with a LOT of money at risk. Eclipse buyers have developed thick skins and a phenomenal loyalty to their airplanes after having had to deal with a fair amount of trauma in the last two years. There are some very smart people with money down on this airplane... we're talking CEOs, engineers, professional pilots and other power players in the aviation, as well as general business, world... and I found it hard (though not impossible), to find anyone who didn't feel very positively about their future airplane. Of all of Vern Raburn's many miracles over the last few years, the way that he has informed, educated, and brought together this crew (after quite a few ups and downs), may be his crowning achievement.

The afternoon was reserved for factory tours of both the much publicized Friction Stir Welding facility and the increasingly busy main plant. Eclipse staffers were everywhere, and answered questions without reservation. Hundreds of people went through both plants while the FSW facility was engaged in actual fabrication, and the main plant was undertaking final assembly of several of the first airframes. Favorite parts of the tour included a spot where visitors could get their digital picture taken with one of the airframes (like that of a certain fly-writer pictured below... tell me YOU wouldn't have taken the same opportunity...), with a print made available within minutes, the avionics test facility, and the flight test center (which boasts some of the most extensive telemetry this side of Boeing).

As a working test pilot who has been forced to work under some pretty primitive conditions, I have to tell you that one of the most impressive aspects of the Eclipse development program is the manner in which they are conducting their flight test protocols. They've developed an advanced telemetry and data collection system that has no equal in this class of aircraft. EVERYTIME their aircraft flies, it is sending data to an Engineering Center where a cadre of talented aerodynamic and systems engineers have the ability to observe and analyze up to 2100 aircraft parameters in real-time. Each flight collects nearly 7 GB of data, which we are told (by Eclipse), is about 10 times more data than may be collected in traditional general aviation aircraft development scenarios. The quality of the data is impeccable and has impressed the heck out of a number of the FAA personnel working closely with the program. This is also one of the reasons that I got so excited about flying the Eclipse 500 simulator… because the sim has the benefit of  working off an extremely detailed aerodynamic model… and what I flew electronically should be closely matched by what I hope to fly, aerodynamically, in the not to distant future. If the actual bird flies like the sim model, this is going to be a GREAT flyer.

Overall, it was an impressive tour and presentation... ending up with a pleasant buffet and party just off the main office complex, well attended by all of the senior staffers of Eclipse, including Raburn--who was accessible to anyone who stepped up (including pesky pain-in-the-ass journalists... the man has NO pain threshold).

By the time the sun set, some 12 hours after the whole thing had started, there wasn't anyone amongst the hundreds who attended who didn't feel far better educated about the Eclipse 500. While I think it's a pretty obvious to everyone that some daunting obstacles have been surmounted; there are still some pretty significant hurdles ahead of the program. However, no one said that changing the way an industry has been running itself was going to be easy, certainly not Raburn, and certainly not any of his senior staff. 

ANN has come to have a fairly positive opinion of this entire program… which is certainly no secret to anyone who's been reading us over the last few years. That opinion has come about out of intimate knowledge of what's happening on the inside of this program (including the painful period when certain aspects of the program were going to hell), some extraordinarily frank talks with Raburn and his senior staff, and watching a whole series of rumors, innuendo, accusations, and other nasty pronouncements come and go as the Eclipse program has overcome problem after problem. 

No one is saying this is a done deal. And were not about to pronounce that this program is a guaranteed success. However, there's no question that, should the Eclipse movement succeed, that this is the kind of airplane that changes how everybody does business thereafter... and for that reason (primarily), we're rooting for a positive conclusion. We'd be hard-pressed to tell you what the odds are for, or against, their success at this point, but we're beginning to believe that the odds are about as even as they're ever going to be... especially with the hint of news that we expect to be reporting over the next few days and weeks. In the meantime, though, the rumor mongers, the pundits, and the friends and the foes, are going to have a field day, one way or another until sometime in 2006 when (we hope), Eclipse 500s start rolling off the production line.  In the meantime, we'll keep our eyes open, and our word processors at the ready... FAR more news to come….

FMI: www.eclipseaviation.com