Think you can’t afford your own plane? Think again.
Think you can’t afford your own plane? Think again.
Dallas, Texas–April 30, 2007–Introducing the newest, lightest jet on the market – The Eclipse 500 (www.eclipseaviation.com)
. This is a small 6-seat very light jet produced by Eclipse Aviation
and it is making waves in the aviation industry. It is the second in
its class of business jets, known as Very Light Jet, previously termed
Microjet. The aircraft is powered by two lightweight turbofan engines
in tail-mounted nacelles.
When it was first launched, the
purpose was to bring a new marketplace to small jet aircraft and the
Eclipse is attempting to market the jet to a segment of the marketplace
that has not had a jet participating in its product line. This makes it
a strong competitor for turbo aircraft, The Eclipse is centralizing its
marketing plan on low service costs as well as a comprehensive service
and maintenance program for its consumer. With its ability to land at
well over 10,000 airports in America, the Eclipse and other light jet
producers are hoping this will create an air taxi role for their planes.
With
over 2,500 orders on the books, the expected success of the Eclipse is
said to skyrocket. Eclipse has yet to clarify what an order actually
means as there are different deposit amounts for the individual
customer. They had hoped to have 10 aircraft delivered by the end of
2006, but were only able to provide even their second plane. The
initial cost of the Eclipse is said to be around the 1.52 million USD
mark which is even still much lower than any of its competition which
sits around the 2.62 million USD point. Eclipse plans to produce about
four aircraft each day by the end of 2008.
“We look forward to
receiving our jet sooner rather than later,” said Peter Klamka, an Ann
Arbor, Michigan venture capitalist and ceo of a European solar company
with extensive travel needs.
Currently DayJet is Eclipse’s
largest customer hoping to obtain about 250 light jets for air taxi
roles. Low operating costs are the focus of the Eclipse and they hope
to guarantee owners such as DayJet a cost of $209 per flight hour for a
minimum of three years. The company is utilizing advanced electrical
systems, manufacturing practices, and business economics to produce
very light jets that will cost a third of today’s standard small jet
plane. Eclipse has as its goal the notion of bringing “personal” into
the aviation marketplace, making it feasible for commercial passengers
to move between cities in an efficient, affordable fashion. This will
make the Eclipse a much safer and simpler aircraft to operate than
those in today’s market. This will then lower the cost of ownership
every obtained in a jet plane.
“We
see an opportunity to service corporations with immediate travel needs
with services like DayJet,” added Kimberly Tavil, an independent
corporate travel planner.
About the author
Wiliam Kilgore
is a retired airline executive and consultant to companies on private
aviation matters. He can be reached via email at wkilgore@consultant.com. His blog is located at http://williamkilgore.livejour
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