The Surprise Unveiling of 2007: The ECJ Concept What a year! 2007 was an amazing combination of so many good and bad things... but for sure, there was NO end of excitement. If there was a "reveal" of the year, it HAS to have been the first sight of the super-secret Eclipse Concept Jet program... which only Eclipse, ANN and a few others knew ANYTHING about until the opening morning of Oshkosh 2007. Eclipse Aviation -- and company CEO Vern Raburn, in particular -- certainly have a flair for the dramatic. At a kickoff press event early Monday morning, before the gates opened at AirVenture 2007, the planemaker took the wraps off a concept model of its Eclipse Concept Jet: a single engine, four-passenger, slightly futuristic-in-appearance V-tailed aircraft intended to test the waters in the emerging Personal Jet category. But the planemaker didn't stop there. A line in Chief Operating Officer Peg Billson's speech describing the concept model -- an offhand remark about "flight testing" -- was drowned out by the unmistakable (muted) scream of a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F turbofan, as the living and breathing ECJ made its debut. The crowd applauded as the tent flaps opened to reveal the aircraft, with a grinning Raburn in the left seat (and company test pilot Terry Tomeny in the co-pilot's chair.) As the engine spooled down, Raburn emerged from the plane, and adopted his best "cool test pilot" pose. The industry was stunned. Now... for the first time, is a three part series about some of the behind the scenes events that took place to make this happen... including the first flight... which ONLY ANN as there to shoot, air-to-air. The whole program was wrapped in the utmost secrecy, so we were priveleged to be let in as the program got underway. The ECJ cruises at a top speed of 345 knots and its service ceiling will be 41,000 feet. The aircraft's range is estimated to be 1,250 nautical miles. A unique element of the ECJ's aerodynamic design is its empennage, which features an external ...