I’ve just come across this piece of aviation history 
It’s quite funny to reflect on how much BS this guy is putting out, in retrospect. It is less funny when one considers how many were taken in by this BS and gave him hundreds of millions in deposits.
He did build a very good product and luring investors is what is usually part of such an ambitious venture. The Manhattan skyscraper funds all went bust — people were crazy about the prospects of skyscrapers and invested like crazy, only to lose all money. The ones that picked up the projects made a fortune.
The Vern Rayburn of 2014 is Elon Musk…
Aviation has certain repeating patterns, and some contributors have had encore performances
Tesla are making and selling a lot of units, something Eclipse failed to do. The cars do what they say they will, another contrast to Eclipse.
Current production is many hundreds per week, and the builds are for many markets, not just for California. They are delivering European cars now.
Tesla are not perfect, but it is unfair to say they are anywhere near Eclipse.
Achima, you should drive a Tesla, I have and they are impressive.
Shame they stopped building the roadster (based on the Lotus Elise), that one was fun.
I just looked at their current “Model S” production car, which was nice overall, but was lacking a bit in build quality (for example, the chrome trim did not align around the doors and windows). Amazing technology, though, and very powerful and quick in acceleration – although if you ever tried to drive it at continuous full power the batteries would run out after 15 minutes…
They have also sorted the charging in principle, and they are also building infrastructure to charge en-route.
Re Europe – I believe they sell over 30,000 cars a year now, most of which in Europe.
Back to the 2 eclipse at schipol.
As chief pilot ATT , we modified these two jets in order to operate in the Ec airspace.
N500uk was flown by me from KABQ to the Dubai 2007 air show….25 hours, 14 fuel stops, 3 days….we were in a hurry!
After the show it was delivered to first owner outside US ,,,,in Blackpool.
Configuration…ETT, non FIKI (boots and windshield heat work), Avidyne 1.0 with two non integrated garmin 430 non Waas.(allowed the 8.33 MHz spacing)
A garmin 327 S transponder to meet then EU specs
An off shelf intercom due to VHF mod to audio system.
rvsm certified, plus Mnps for the crossing, hdg and alt hold autopilot, met rvsm for ALL delivered eclipse ac.
N513ea exact config for delivery to Ulyanovsk Ru in feb 2008 for huge rollout ceremony where I flew everyone in kremlin except Putin.
I flew Ru half owner in that ac until it was parked at schipol in feb 2009,,,,,,,, same park date on 500uk.
Those ac are in such bad shape eclipse would not refurb them and have the faa registry removed.
2 Russian owners, 2 planes parked in feb 2009, schipol authorities are going to remove them.
Bargain for someone….4 good jet engines at minimum….
How stoopid to walk away from $500k USD assets
hello,
as i have noclue about bizjets etc and i am also in no way to fly one or buy one my knowladge is low
i just would like to know more about the eclipse just had one parked up beside me and it looked very nice
what is the story there and why they are relative low priced when u check the net what is the catch???
this is just of general pure interest
thanks
Hi Peter_Paul,
Use the site search function here for Eclipse and you can entertain yourself for several hours. The short is that all “cheap” Eclipses are preSB with an Avio (FMS) version that may change frequencies on you or not even have an autopilot. To get a fully working plane you’ll need the two million USD upgrade
