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."

FMI: www.vernsgonnakillus.com, www.avidynesgonnacleanup.com