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Clear skies after Vern?

12 August 2008

Not surprisingly one of the biggest talking points at Oshkosh 2008 was the legacy of Vern Raburn - the undisputed Father of the VLJ.

Well, it's not the first time a visionary maverick, who upset a few old codgers along the way, proved better at ideas than the tortuous machinations of the balance sheet.

The mere fact that all the VLJ manufacturers (+Cessna) were in attendance at Oshkosh is testament in itself. This is a type of aircraft that simply did not exist a few years ago. Whether he was wise to set such ambitious production targets is debatable, however what he has done is shake up the General Aviation community and pitched point to point, on demand jet travel at attainable levels for the average bloke.

What now for Eclipse? - no doubt, production targets will be pegged back to realistic levels and the price will steadily increase but it still represents terrific value, and compared to established bizjets, sensible operating costs.

As for Vern, let's hope he gets to go flying for fun, in cloudless, turbulent free skies.

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