Visionary Vern Raburn remembered

Raburn was employee number 18 at Microsoft and eventually became its vice president. He held senior executive positions at Lotus Development Corp., Symantec, and the Paul Allen Group. A private pilot with more than 6,000 hours and 17 aircraft type ratings, he owned a personal aircraft collection that included a Lockheed Constellation, an aircraft he loved to fly to and show off at airshows.

He founded Eclipse Aviation in 1998 in Albuquerque with the aim of manufacturing the first ever VLJ, an innovative six-seat twin-engine jet that could compete with corporate aircraft, cruising at 370 knots at 41,000 feet with better fuel economy for the price of a piston twin. Achieving that price point required high-volume production, and Raburn set up the company to implement automotive-like production processes. After its certification in 2007, Eclipse Aviation delivered a fraction of the thousands of jets envisioned, only about 260 aircraft in all, according to an obituary provided to AOPA by longtime aviation journalist Fred George. The Eclipse 500's limited ability to fly in known icing conditions and the loss of customer DayJet, together with the global financial crisis, marked the downturn and ultimate demise of the project.

Former Eclipse Aviation employees remember that they were challenged to be innovative, worked long hours, and were expected to defend their ideas to peer criticism, but also that a feeling of family prevailed, manifest in regular Friday afternoon hangar parties, George noted.

Ultimately, the VLJ concept didn’t catch on, but dozens of Eclipse 500s still fly, and their owners love the aircraft, honoring Raburn’s vision.