DustyDude, I thought this would interest you on several fronts....
Gates backs new corporate jet
Monday, July 1, 2002
By RICHARD BENKE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- As corporate jet markets rebound from September's terrorist attacks, an
Albuquerque aircraft manufacturer plans to launch a six-seat, twin-engine jet at less than one-fourth
of the cheapest competitor's cost.
Eclipse Aviation promises a stronger, lighter, more fuel-efficient jet. The promises have hundreds of
customers lining up for planes even before rollout of the first jet, scheduled this month, and before
flight testing. The first planes are due for delivery in 18 months.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is among investors who put up $220 million to help get Eclipse off
the ground, while Eclipse President Vern Raburn, a former Microsoft vice president, seeks another
$80 million in capital.
While the cheapest new Cessna Citation runs around $4 million -- $3 million used -- Eclipse says
its new jet will sell for $837,500.
Though it's a near-boom market now, Raburn says the Eclipse 500 "creates its own market" and
doesn't compete with other planes. It won't steal sales from Cessna, Lear or any others, he says.
"The interest in the corporate world is not to replace the existing Challengers or Lears or Citations or
Hawkers," he said. "It's to add to."
About 9,700 companies now own about 13,000 jets, he said.
Tammy Bell, vice president of the online Aircraft Dealer Network, said some corporate grumbling
about the inconvenience of scheduled airline flights after Sept. 11 helped rekindle the commuter
market. One chief executive officer wanted his old jet back after an intrusive airport security search,
she said.
"I remember him saying when he had to take his shoes off, that was a little more than he was willing
to cope with," Bell said.
The jet market was entering a tailspin well before the terrorist attacks, said Dan Dickinson, chairman
of Chicago-based General Aviation Services Inc., which sells used jets of many makes and models.
"September 11th: That accelerated the decline, I think," Dickinson said. "But we had a flurry of
activity the last quarter -- people saying we're not going to fly the airlines anymore; we're going to
fly our own."
It's almost inconceivable, he said, for a corporate jet to be hijacked.
"Nobody unauthorized gets onto a corporate airplane," he said.
Since early this year, the corporate jet market is up 30-40 percent, Dickinson said. But he's waiting
to see if Eclipse actually succeeds. Many start-up companies do not.
"It'll be a factor in the marketplace if and when it comes to the market," he said. "I personally don't
see how they can build it and sell it for that price."
As planned, the Eclipse 500 will have a range of 1,300 miles, cruising speed of 408 mph, cruising
altitude of 41,000 feet, and operating cost of 56 cents a mile.
It gets about 10 miles per gallon, "unheard of in aircraft" and about double what the next-closest
planes get, Raburn says.
Two keys to the low cost and fuel efficiency, he says, are small and efficient turbofan jet engines
made by Williams International, and the stir-welding that replaces the tedious process of seaming the
plane with rivets.
Nearly 200 people are working at Eclipse today, including 180 engineers. Full employment by 2007
is expected to rise to 2,000 employees.
"I think their chances are really good," said Joseph Moeggenberg, president of Aviation Research
Group/US Inc., an industry research firm. "The impact will be huge -- a major impact on the general
aviation industry."
He said the company will bring in air taxi service at "almost airline rates."
But Moeggenberg cautioned that as owner-pilots trade up from a 230-mph piston-driven airplane to
the faster jet, their insurance rates may be a real factor to consider.
Gates, in a statement released to help promote Eclipse, compared the freedom of communication he
has championed for computers with the freedom of travel offered by Raburn's little jets.
Gates claims no aviation expertise, Raburn says. |
