Back in the ebullient days of 2002, before the iPhone became the bright, shiny object du jour, our frenzy was focused on something else: The coming of the very light jet or VLJ whose speed, affordability and ease of access were going to revolutionize personal transportation in the same way the internet rewrote the rules of communication. It was to be, said a leading disciple of the cause, “disruptive technology.” Six years later, the lavishly promoted rock star of the VLJ-the Eclipse EA500-was at the bottom of a billion-and-half dollar smoking hole with a reputation so besmirched that only one serious bidder emerged to buy the companys bankrupted assets. From the ashes, the new Eclipse Aerospace hopes to be a green shoot, hitting the timing right and offering what many people in the industry still believe is a concept that ought to work: a highly automated, small, fast, economical jet that a single pilot can easily fly. The new Eclipse is headquartered in the same place the old company was, at the Albuquerque International Airport, originally lured there by generous concessions from the state of New Mexico and the city. An investor group headed by Mason Holland and Mike Press bought the assets for $40 million, rejiggered the infrastructure to a much smaller footprint and is now busily modifying many of the existing 260 airplanes with known-ice protection and upgraded avionics. Eclipses production tooling is in storage and Holland told us the company will be ready to build new airplanes when the market is ready to buy them. For now, its signature product is a play on words: The Total Eclipse is the fully automated, fully integrated and ice-protected small jet that the original was intended to be. In support of its efforts, the new Eclipse has signed a deal with Sikorksy Aircraft for maintenance and technical support which, by the way, brings some street cred the original company never quite enjoyed, given that it entered the market with a well-show-you-how-its-done attitude. 
