On the Record With VERN RABURN, PRESIDENT & CEO,
ECLIPSE AVIATION CORPORATION
Aside from being the only person in aerospace who can get away
with language like "disambiguating dialog," Vern Raburn
has another distinction: his company really, truly ought to be
dead.
After all, Raburn himself had likened the Williams EJ22 engine
in the Eclipse 500 light jet to the microprocessor in a PC--the
technology that made the entire machine possible. When Eclipse
cancelled the EJ22 development contract at the end of November
2002, many observers assumed it was all over.
"When I started, the engine, without any question, was the
key enabler," says Raburn. "But as Eclipse had driven
as hard as we did to build the factory and the airplane, and evangelizing
the whole concept, that it induced other engine companies to take
an interest. It had worked its way to the point where the engine
wasn't the only enabler."
Raburn admits that there was no Plan B in place if Williams failed
to deliver the engine, and says that the six months between September
2002--when the seriousness of the engine problems became clear-and
February, when Pratt & Whitney signed up to deliver the PW610F
for the Eclipse, were "unbelievably, terribly painful."
He adds, "I'm in awe of Pratt & Whitney. It took them
less than 90 days from a standing start to a nine-figure development
contract, with the first new-start company that they'd ever agreed
to develop an engine for."
Today, the Eclipse project is on a new track. The company knows
what its competition looks like. "The Mustang launch answered
the question of what Cessna was going to do," he says. "We
had an internal database of rumors, from a $600,000 jet to a $1
million, Mach 0.9 jet." Finance is complete, says Raburn:
"We have our last round of cash-at least, I believe it's
our last round. If things go to plan we have all the cash we need
to get through certification."
Moreover, Eclipse still claims a 2,000-plus-unit order book and,
says Raburn, "we have never been proactive in sales-we have
been almost 100% responsive. Sometimes, checks just show up in
the mail." There are very few conventional corporate customers,
Raburn says. One-third of the customers (a smaller proportion
of orders) are owner-pilots, trading up from a Baron or Malibu.
There is also strong interest from training operators and same-day
airfreight operators, interested in using the Eclipse to compete
with airlines' counter-to-counter services.
The bulk of Eclipse orders, however, are from new "air limo"
services. Raburn sees a future in which surviving airlines provide
low-cost service among a few dozen large cities. "When you
get below the top 250 cities, air service will be non-existent,"
he says. Demand for convenient, direct service outside a few main
trunk routes will be met by air taxis.
"It's too early to say that there is a single, unified model"
for Eclipse-based transport services, says Raburn. Eclipse customers
are looking at a range of options, from a true cab-type service
to a fixed-fare "SuperShuttle" serving a number of stops
on a semi-scheduled basis. An Eclipse-based air-taxi system could
resemble the "mass customization" introduced by Amazon.com-the
system would know the user's travel preferences and patterns.
"If you've just flown out, it would ask you if you want to
fly home." Call up a jet on your cellphone or PDA and the
closest aircraft is on its way-possibly for a cost that looks
like today's unrestricted coach fare.
Even with its new, more conservative engine, the Eclipse is still
a visionary project-and one that has already defied the experts
and beaten the odds to get where it is today.
