Eclipse 500

Recently, Richard Kaplan posted:

The plane looks great but the cost has risen so much from the
original plan such that it is now "evolutionary" and not
"revolutionary."

Evolved from... what? What other VLJs will be delivered within the next
year?

The ability of the company to provide long-term support is a key
question because an orphaned airplane would lose lots of value.

Ever look at the price of a North American P-51? You could have bought
several of the originals for the price of one today! ;-)

Therefore, I think for anyone considering a VLJ, the Cessna Mustang
is a better long-term investment. There is no doubt Cessna will be
around for the long-term; the jury is still out on Eclipse.

Well, this is a judgement call that would be dependent on many factors,
not the least being how many Mustangs make it to the market compared to
Eclipse 500s. Considering that Cessna and Piper are being outsold by
Cirrus, I don't see a company's history as a very good predictor of their
future success. People will buy the aircraft that they think represents a
better choice for their mission, and since the VLJ market will be at least
in part defined by return on investment, I think that planes costing
several times more to purchase and maintain will have an uphill battle
against the E-500.

Neil