Seeking to increase his
customer base among Bizjet owners throughout the world,
Aero-Entrepreneur Vern Raburn has introduced his latest new
design... an aircraft that maximizes the return on investment his
company has made, so far, in developing the twin engine Eclipse 500
microjet.
Raburn (who is rumored to have been a great fan of such WWII
aircraft as the F-82) noted that, "We envisioned the Eclipse 1000
as a dual role aircraft (hence, our new dual logo...) -- the first
as an excellent, if unique, trainer for pilots looking to become
Bizjet owner/flyers for the first time (and to give them an
authentic single pilot feel throughout the training process), and
the other for whom the Eclipse 500 was only about half of what they
needed."
Eclipse feels that there is an excellent market for the four
engine Bizjet... "an aircraft that offers more system redundancy
than any other Bizjet in the fleet." Eclipse is particularly
enthused by the training applications for the new jet. "Putting the
instructor in one cockpit, and the student in the other, teaches
new pilots the true rudiments of single pilot operation and builds
fast confidence in pilots who have never operated this class of
aircraft before."
Raburn (right) says
that, "This is the four-engine bizjet I've always wanted. The best
aspect of this decision is that we've already built just about
every part for that airplane... all we have to do is design the
center section, work out some control issues between the cockpits,
and update our paperwork... the local FAA has never
certified a four-engine jet before so they're happy to help us
get a solid footing on the certification process and apply many
aspects of the Eclipse 500 program to the certification roster in
order to speed up the development cycle on this incredible
aircraft."
Industry reaction has been mixed... Adam Aircraft founder Rick
Adam seemed a bit miffed at what he saw as Eclipse, "obviously
taking their cues from our twin boom configuration but getting it
all wrong and putting fuselages and cabins where just the booms
belong... but if that's what he wants to put in front of the
industry, we can do it better and have it certified by Sunday."
Adam personnel were thereafter seen gluing together the first
prototype of the Adam 1400, which was scheduled for a first flight
as soon as the glue dried.
Avidyne's Mark Sundeen seemed quite delighted with the news,
"This is GREAT news. As the primary avionics supplier for the
Eclipse program, we get to sell Eclipse twice as many systems and
as soon as we can get Vern off this silly quantity discount idea he
has, we expect to make some real money off the E-1000."