Pilot Training Resources

Eclipse Aviation and Their Very Light Jet the Eclipse 500

I remember years ago when I had the opportunity to put a fully refundable $25,000 deposit down on an Eclipse 500 Jet from Eclipse Aviation. At the time, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to afford the 1.3 million dollar cost of the jet, but the aircraft broker I was dealing with told me that I should do it as an investment anyways since the depost was refundable and if I didn’t want the airplane, I could always sell my position to someone else and possibly make some money.

Well, at that time, Eclipse Aviation was pretty much just a pipe dream and a concept and even though I had a love for aviation and the dream of very light jets, I wasn’t able to be convinced to move the $25,000 from the bank account to Eclipse Aviation. Wow, was I wrong! Just recently, Eclipse Aviation announced that their Eclipse 500 very light jet has been certified by the FAA as a production airplane and Eclipse is beginning deliveries of the Eclipse 500.

I recently picked up a copy of Trade-A-Plane and saw that positions for delivery of the Eclipse 500 jet that will be occurring this year and early next year are selling for $300,000! That’s right, a $25,000 investment made in 2001 could return up to $300,000 today, all because of Eclilpse Aviation. It’s not even right to call it an investment, because it is a fully refundable deposit. I wonder how many people will give up the dream of owning an Eclipse 500 jet in the near future in exchange of hundreds of thousands of dollars for their position. It made me wonder what I would do in that position. Would I take the money and run, or pony up the rest of the dough and buy the airplane?

I think what I would do in that situation is buy the airplane, enjoy it for a few months and then decide whether to keep it or sell it at a huge premium to somone else who wants it more. I might be able to make enough off the sale of the jet to purchase a nice fractional ownership piece of the Eclipse 500 from a fractional ownership program. That way, I’d have my money and access to the airplane. Pretty soon, there will be so many Eclipse Aviation Eclipse 500 jets out there that someone will be giving flying lessons in them. Now, that is something I’d sign up for!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 1:23 pm and is filed under Very Light Jets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Eclipse Aviation and Their Very Light Jet the Eclipse 500

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