Conclusions
In analyzing the long-term results of the Eclipse Aviation development, Richard Aboulafia, Vice President, Analysis, Teal Group, stated:
In addition to the economic cost, this program and related air taxi schemes have had a toxic impact on a broad range of political and governmental entities. Somehow, the FAA got co-opted. If the report is correct, the FAA’s actions were reprehensible, a threat to the principles of good governance that keep society safe. It would be akin to the FDA deciding to approve possibly tainted milk because it came from a well-connected dairy. During recent congressional hearings, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson implied that jobs were more important than honesty, safety and good government. For possibly the first time, a US government entity provided equity cash for a private business.J. Mac McClellan, Editor in Chief of Flying Magazine concluded about the Eclipse case:
A disaster of this size has many causes, but the most fundamental was a fantasy about the economics of designing, building and supporting airplanes. The company also predicted impossibly low empty weights, which then led to unattainable performance and range predictions, and it expected to accomplish all of this in record setting time.But Eclipse is, at its root, a financial failure first and foremost. It was costing the company more than twice as much to build an Eclipse 500 as it had sold the airplane for. And that was for an incomplete airplane lacking many basic functions and it would have cost many thousands more per airplane to eventually modify them to match the sales contract.
... Eclipse has provided yet another cautionary tale, and I do believe its effects will linger in the general aviation business for the rest of my career.Russ Niles, Editor-in-Chief of AVweb offered this analysis:
While most of us are simply happy to see the end of a tortuous process, the timing is awful. With general aviation under the gun from all corners, this kind of collapse will only make it harder to rebuild an industry that has not only been pummeled by the market forces affecting all business but has been unfairly tarred as a symbol of greed and waste. Unfortunately, sometimes the shoe fits, and, fair or not, the industry as a whole will have to wear it for some time ... in aviation like anything else, we learn from our mistakes. Eclipse has certainly provided an education.Writing in September 2009 after the bankruptcy sale of the company's assets, Paul Bertorelli, AVweb Editorial Director said:
The most spectacular failure has been Eclipse, which tanked for a multitude of reasons related to hubris, out-of-control costs, inappropriate technology and just ordinary mismanagement, in my estimation. But looming over the entire project was Eclipse's concept of building jets and selling them at or right around the $1 million mark. Among other things, Eclipse proved that this can't be done, or at least it can't be done the way Eclipse tried it.Read more about this topic: History Of Eclipse Aviation
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