Ceremony is "Celebratory"

As Eclipse's top man and self-proclaimed, self-effacing "figurehead," Vern Raburn told us, "This rollout is for the workers, the families, the investors, the politicians -- it's a really celebratory event," rather than a functional milestone in the genesis of what looks to be the first "all new" aircraft in a very long time.

The first flight, to take place within a very short time -- some say two weeks -- will be that "functional milestone;" but Raburn was adamant about not combining the two. "There are just too many things that can change schedules," he said. "We are absolutely not going to compromise the safety of that first flight."

Naysayers Ranks Diminishing

Eclipse has just closed another round of financing, this time for $18 million. Vern Raburn has had a lot of naysayers follow him around, ever since the Eclipse's announcement, saying his project couldn't be done. With each new step in design, each new manufacturing technique or process that works and gets approved, and each new part that matches its mate, the naysayers have split into two groups: those who stop nay-saying, and those who switch topics. "People will continue to say 'It can't be done,' probably for the next five years," Raburn said. There are fewer of them now than there were before, though; and the rollout will silence a few more. The first flight -- that will send a bunch of them out, looking for other things to say aren't possible.

As to the rollout, which took place Saturday morning in Albuquerque, at the company's headquarters, before a crowd of 1500, Raburn said, "People were surprised at just how complete the airplane is. It's essentially a real airplane." It's not a "gee-whiz" mockup; it has all the real parts on it. As Raburn reminded us, "We will follow with first flight fairly soon, so the airplane has to be just about perfect.

"That latest round of financing -- $18 million, to bring us to $239 million: the important thing about this round is that it validated the thesis that, as we get closer to first flight, we can show people that we are indeed 'different.' We've been deadly serious about this whole business about not building a 'prototype.' All the parts were built on production tooling, to production drawings. This isn't your 'styrofoam cooler' type of airplane. It's a real, production prototype." Raburn says the rollout makes things easier all around. "The Series D [this round] of the financing closed against significantly less resistance," he said. "Once we are financing a flying aircraft, we will expect another lowering of resistance."

Saturday's denouement came as a surprise to many, who just couldn't believe that the airplane was so complete. Mr. Raburn said this rollout took the "...final veil off everything that's in this aircraft." How come we didn't know more, before now? "We haven't been purposely hiding things," he explained. "We wanted to wait until we were absolutely sure of each step, for both production, and competitive reasons." In other words, Eclipse wanted to be sure they wouldn't have to go back and change something; and Raburn didn't want any possible competition to know too much, too soon.

The aircraft is "all new" in three ways: the Williams engine (Raburn says, "one has already been released for flight; the other is just about ready. It's not completely, absolutely perfect yet -- but I know it will be, before it needs to be"); manufacturing (Vern said, "particularly the friction-stir welding -- it's FAA approved, about a year ahead of when we thought it would be"); and avionics. "Electronics -- we haven't really talked about this, except in general terms. We'll talk about this more, very soon," he said.

There's a lot more information coming soon to these pages on those last two subjects. Stay tuned!

FMI: www.eclipseaviation.com