I followed the Eclipse Aviation saga from the beginning: promise of a $850k jet 5 years ago, mass production of personal jets, “friction-stir welding.”
A lot of people in the aviation industry were convinced this plane would never make it to production.
I knew that it would, but assumed the final production price would be a little higher. I always thought DayJet was a shill company of Eclipse to help write press releases.
Well, imagine my surprise when I saw TV video footage a few months back of DayJet’s operation, replete with dozens of Eclipse 500 jets. DayJet was real afterall!
DayJet has since closed, blaming equally financing problems and Eclipse roll-out problems.
What’s fascinating is that Eclipse is selling the DayJet 28-Eclipse 500 inventory with the information that each airframe has 150 to 450 cycles. So it looks like DayJet really did some flying.
Eclipse has apparently missed payroll this month, so we’ll see what happens next.
avweb.com: Eclipse Selling Off DayJet Fleet
avweb.com: Analysts Grim On Eclipse Future
avweb.com: Eclipse Shutdown Predicted
avweb.com: Eclipse Misses Payroll: TV Report
kob.com: Unpaid Eclipse employees worry about future
South Florida Business Journal: DayJet Restart Speculation
avweb.com: FAA Issues Guidance For Eclipse Owners
avweb.com: New Eclipse Lining Up Support
AINonline: UT Finance Asks To Repossess DayJet Eclipses
AOPA Online: Eclipse Aerospace gets type certificates, calls suppliers to meeting
Avweb Video: Eclipse Jet Flight Demo
What did DayJet do w/Astro after they folded?