Enter the age of the personal jet. A private plane like no other… On opening day of Oshkosh, Eclipse Aviation introduced a 4 place, single engine private rocket ship called the Eclipse Concept Jet or ECJ for short.

This thing is cool. It’s sexy. I wish I could post a pic of it here for you to see; Unfortunately I don’t have the clearance but I will put a link to it right here. Go and check this thing out- It’s that sexy. It’s look is different- It grabs you. It makes you look longer. And no, Eclipse is not paying me for writing any of this. I want one… REAL BAD. Are you getting my point?

The basic design does raise a question. But before sharing that with you, let me try to describe this unique creation in words. Imagine a space craft, no not the ones like on Star Trek. I’m talking about the X-Wing Star Fighter from Star Wars. It looks that good, and the part that reaches out and grabs you the hardest is the tail. Yes, the tail. It’s a dual fin, sort of like an F-18 fighter, but better. And yes, I said better. This tail sails, like the sails on a ship. The tail(s) literally sweep back and grab the air behind you. Up front is the human part and it’s sort of egg shape that swoops up and away from the nose only to drop sharply back down into the tail section. There is one jet engine, mounted on a pod between the tail feathers.

And so that leads me to my question. When looking at the head on only profile on the manufacturer’s website, you see about half of the engine can peaking up over the canopy. This makes me question air disruption, but not that much. Not as much as when the aircraft pitches up or down, or slightly less questionable as when it’s in a sustained climb. How much is the airflow disrupted during these phases of flight? And is this an issue at all???

Now, I’m sure Eclipse has already looked at this a million times and I’m sure that the airplane wouldn’t have been designed this way if it was an issue. But.. still but. Just call it a simple curiosity then on my part, alright???

Overall, it really looks like Eclipse scored a winner with this airplane. If I had the money, I’d be calling them instead of writing this piece. And check out these numbers:

Concept to flight in six months
Max cruise speed of 345 knots
Service ceiling of 41000 feet
1250 nautical mile range
Stall speed of 61 knots. Yes, 61 knots
186 gallons of fuel

So, where do I sign up? Dreams… dreams…
~Capt’n Chris

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