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Oshkosh Diary: A Watershed Year

If Oshkosh is to airplane companies what Wall Street is to investors, the mood in the world of general aviation is upbeat bordering on ebullient. At EAA AirVenture 2007 we saw a bumper crop of new product introductions-major and minor-at a well-attended show that may signal a turning point of sorts. Thats especially true for the emerging Light Sport Aircraft category, thanks to both Cessna and Cirrus announcing full-blown LSA programs which send the unmistakable message that they finally take this idea seriously. There were lots of hey-did-ya-see-that moments at AirVenture, but the biggest came from Eclipse, which flew in an intriguing single-engine "concept" personal jet that it claimed to have built in about 200 days in an off-site skunk works in Virginia. We werent entirely surprised by this, given persistent rumors of Eclipses plans before the show. But the fact that Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn actually taxied the thing up to the Eclipse exhibition was a stunner that were sure got the attention of Diamond, Cirrus and Piper, all of whom are toiling away on single-engine jets of their own.

Paul Bertorelli
Verified

If Oshkosh is to airplane companies what Wall Street is to investors, the mood in the world of general aviation is upbeat bordering on ebullient. At EAA AirVenture 2007 we saw a bumper crop of new product introductions-major and minor-at a well-attended show that may signal a turning point of sorts. Thats especially true for the emerging Light Sport Aircraft category, thanks to both Cessna and Cirrus announcing full-blown LSA programs which send the unmistakable message that

Eclipse Concept Jet

they finally take this idea seriously. There were lots of hey-did-ya-see-that moments at AirVenture, but the biggest came from Eclipse, which flew in an intriguing single-engine “concept” personal jet that it claimed to have built in about 200 days in an off-site skunk works in Virginia. We werent entirely surprised by this, given persistent rumors of Eclipses plans before the show. But the fact that Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn actually taxied the thing up to the Eclipse exhibition was a stunner that were sure got the attention of Diamond, Cirrus and Piper, all of whom are toiling away on single-engine jets of their own.

True to form, OSH also proved the venue for avionics introductions, including a new aftermarket glass cockpit suite from Bendix/King, a datalink weather box from Avidyne and a low-cost glass system from Aspen Avionics that may finally make this technology affordable to the Toyota Camry set. Increasingly, the glass display field is looking like the LSA segment, with an abundance of products that may or may not find legs in the market.

Eclipse Solo

Give Vern Raburn credit for one thing: The man is a showman. If his intent was to lock up every lead story for AirVentures opening day-mission accomplished, complete with flight suit. Raburn arrived in style in the new Eclipse concept jet, a diminutive four-seat single-engine design thats a combination parts-bin/clean sheet idea owing inspiration to the twinjet Eclipse 500. Ahead of AirVentures opening day, we knew the project was afoot, but it was uncertain whether it would arrive in mock-up form or as a flyable prototype.

Eclipse thinks the time is right to sink exploratory dollars into a single-engine jet, even at a time when its principle program-the 500 twinjet-continues to suffer production and technical delays. The new airplane is being pitched like a Detroit

Paul Bertorelli

Paul Bertorelli is Aviation Consumer’s Editor at Large. In addition to his valued contributions to Aviation Consumer, his in-depth video productions on sister publication AVweb cover a wide variety of topics that greatly contribute to safety, operation and aircraft ownership. When Paul isn’t writing or filming, he’s out flying his J3 Cub.