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Raburn calls the Eclipse
"a disruptive technology" in an industry
dominated by a few big firms. The killer
app of the Eclipse is its tiny engine. Williams,
who designed engines for cruise missiles,
has been working on reducing engine size
for decades. The Eclipse engine, the EJ22,
is tiny in airplane terms—85 lbs. (the
CJ1 weighs 450 lbs.) and about 14 in. in
diameter. But it produces a powerful 770
lbs. of thrust (CJ1: 1,900 lbs.). That's
a higher thrust-to-weight ratio than any
commercial turbofan engine, and it is the
smallest, quietest and lightest jet engine
made for use in a civilian aircraft.
Not surprisingly,
some critics think this set of aeronautical
physics is pi in the sky. "There will have
to be some miracles inside the EJ22," wrote
Mac McClellan, a columnist for Flying magazine.
But Raburn welcomes the skeptics. He even
wears a WCSYC button on his lapel. "It stands
for 'We Couldn't, So You Can't,'" says Raburn.
"I've seen that mentality before. I worked
in the software business. Remember what
small personal computers did to those huge,
lumbering mainframes?" Point taken. Is your
driveway wide enough?
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