The saga of Eclipse Jets just gets weirder and weirder and you'll need a scorecard to keep track of all the companies with the Eclipse name. The first was Eclipse Aviation Corporation which produced the planes but filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Then Luxembourg-based EclipseJet Aviation International (part of ETIRC Aviation) was set to buy the company, and in fact their website says they are "the principal distributor of the Eclipse 500 very light jet in Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, and CIS countries." But that deal fell through and Eclipse entered Chapter 7 liquidation last month which means that the company's assets are set to be liquidated.

Enter a new group, known as Eclipse Jet LLC which as Aero-News Network reports, has joined others hoping to bid on the company's assets. This group contains leaders of the Ad Hoc Customer Committee and Steering Committee including Mike Press a retired USAF colonel who owns an Eclipse 500, and runs a private company to broker Eclipse delivery positions. He is working with other owners and depositors including businessman Mason Holland to try and acquire the assets of Eclipse. The motivation is both to provide support for those who already own planes as well as restarting production of the Eclipse 500, perhaps to complete the seven planes still in various stages of being built inside the plant. Holland and Press have said that they are interesting in reorganizing Eclipse as a sustainable company.

Two other bids for the Eclipse assets have been made public including yet another Eclipse-named group, Eclipse Services and Support LLC, which is a cooperative backed by Linear Air CEO Bill Herp and wants to keep the existing fleet of 259 Eclipse 500 very-light jets in service. Another organization with yet another Eclipse name, New Eclipse Acquisition LLC, is backed by aerospace executive Phil Friedman and also wants to provide support to existing owners and to eventually start producing new aircraft.

While all this is being sorted out, furloughed workers wait for a decision and hope that they will get some money out of the liquidation. Forbes reveals that more than 800 workers have filed a lawsuit seeking back wages and benefits.

Eclipse Aviation has hit another speed bump in its long journey. The company furloughed 800 of its 850 employees this week to save money. The company is running out of funds to pay employees as it tries to complete a bankruptcy sale with Luxembourg-based ETIRC Aviation. Just a limited crew will be retained until the deal closes. KRQUE reported that some people left the southeast Albuquerque plant where Eclipse makes their jets carrying family pictures and documents just in case what should be a short furlough turns out to be a bit longer. A bankruptcy court approved the sale of Eclipse assets to ETIRC last month but finding the $188 million to finance the deal is no easy task in this tough market. Because there is no solid closing date for the sale there's no real reason to keep making jets. Around 30 jets in progress are inside the plant.

This latest turn in the Eclipse saga comes just as there is some good news for private plane buyers, Congress approved a tax break in the stimulus package that will help businesses buy their own planes. An incentive reduces the upfront tax bill for businesses buying significant assets such as planes.

For the last few years, Eclipse Aviation was to seen to be the foundation of a whole new world of air taxis and personal jets with their Eclipse 550 aircraft. Times have changed and this week, Eclipse filed for federal bankruptcy-court protection. The company which is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, struggled to make payroll earlier this month. The Wall Street Journal reports that ETIRC Aviation, which holds nearly 65% of the company's shares, will endeavor to continue manufacturing operations as it moves to acquire Eclipse's assets.

Eclipse still has a backlog of over 2,000 planes on order. The company may slow down production on order to get solvent as soon as possible. The planes sell for around $1.5 million each. Eclipse joins other companies that are planning layoffs and slowing production in order to cope with the dramatic economic shifts.

Anyone want to buy some Eclipse 500 very light jets? Now that the DayJet, air taxi operation has folded, their 28 Eclipse 500 planes are looking for a home. DayJet had originally ordered 1,400 of the small jets for their planned network of fights but closed up shop in September citing the current economic crisis and the inability to secure funding as causes. The 28 are now up for sale and are being sold "as is" with DayJet logoes and interiors. The DayJet Eclipses had accumulated no more than 450 hours each. There are three different configurations of the jets. Eclipse hasn't disclosed a price for the aircraft but some have estimated that it would be in the $1.5 million range per plane.

[via Flying Magazine]

Air taxi service Linear Air has announced the launch of its Eclipse E500 flight service in the greater New York City area. The company's aircraft are based at the White Plains/Westchester County Airport in New York, but will be servicing major and regional airports throughout the tri-state region as well as the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Linear Air serves 10 times more airports than the traditional commercial airlines serve. The Eclipse 500 is a very light jet which only holds a few passengers so to take your whole entourage to Cape Cod for the weekend you'll need to opt for their eight-passenger Cessna Grand Caravan turboprop. . In order to price out an book flights you need to become a member of Linear Air's service.

A spot of bad news for the Eclipse 500. The FAA has recommended inspection of the throttles on the small jets after one made an emergency landing in Chicago last week. The National Transportation Safety Board has said that there is the need for an emergency procedure for dual engine control failure. So far around 200 of the popular private jets have been delivered. The one that landed in Chicago had only 238 flight hours. The Eclipse 500 is the basis of a number of fledgling airtaxi services so this first hint of trouble has been received with some amount of worry by industry watchers.

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Charter Marketplace, a place to shop for private jet charters online, just launched and already they have their first air taxi service offering trips on the Eclipse 500 very light jet. Linear Air which is based on concord, Massachusetts is the only air charter in the Virgin Charter network offering this plane. They have two Eclipse 500s currently and plan to pick up another pair this summer and also fly the eight-passenger Cessna Grand Caravan turboprop. The Linear Air service runs along the East Coast stretching from Canada to the Mid-Atlantic states.

A Danish businessman is the winner of the first auction of the Eclipse 500. Morten Wagner of Denmark bid $1,833,945. The list price of an Eclipse 500 is $1,719.942.60 and the reserve for the auction was $1,633.945.47. According to Aero News Network, Wagner will be heading to the company's headquarters in Albuquerque this week to pick up his plane. Wagner is the founder of an internet company called Freeway and plans to use his new plane for business travel throughout Europe, and to travel between his homes in London, Spain, and Denmark. He currently flies a Cirrus SR22 but has had his eye on the Eclipse for a while.

If you have the need to zip around Florida in one day, you might want to know about DayJet. We've written about this new company before, they are one of the first in the growing air taxi industry and they have chosen Florida as their launch state. DayJet will start by offering service in Gainesville, Boca Raton, Lakeland, Pensacola and Tallahassee. The new service will also open in four other Florida cities within the next year and will expand to other states in the Southeast. What plane does the DayJet use? None other than the much-vaunted Eclipse 500. The flights will work on a per seat basis so you pay only for the seats you need.

[via General Aviation News]

We've mentioned fractional options for the Eclipse 500 Jet before but Jet-Alliance offers a cheaper way to get your piece of a new Eclipse. They offer something called a “fractional alliance” where the owners share in the costs of ownership and operations of the aircraft plus an administrative fee to Jet-Alliance. For a 1/16th slice of the plane, the cost is $81,000 plus ownership fees starting at $15,000 per year and usage fees of $650 per occupied hour to cover fuel and engine reserves.

[via Very Light Jets Blog]