 |
Welcome
Vern Raburn — high tech entrepreneur — was a man with a dream and strong opinions.
The dream: build a low cost, high speed twin-engine jet aircraft; to completely change personal air travel and Eclipse the competition. The strong opinions: when comparing the standards of thinking in aviation to those of Silicon Valley, Raburn said of aviation, "People think we can't do it because they can't. It's the 'if it doesn't exist, it can't exist' theorem." He said of Silicon Valley, "If it doesn't exist, it's a market opportunity."
Eclipse Aviation, Raburn's start-up company, created the airplane, won the prestigious Collier Trophy and went bankrupt. Then, against all odds, it was saved. "The Great Eclipse" tells the story of how crippling culture clashes, supply chain sloppiness, mega-marketing and major mismanagement made the dream a nightmare.
Maxwell takes us on a fascinating journey as Raburn's Eclipse powers through the easy money time of the internet bubble, tumbles on technology and crashes in the global economic crisis.
See what the actual aircraft looks like and flies like at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG-KXKN_jjM
|
 |
About Dennis D. Maxwell
Dennis Maxwell has been writing about technology for over 30 years, at General Electric, SRI International, for a number of Silicon Valley high technology firms and for Eclipse Aviation. His words have appeared in disparate places, from The American Cinematographer to Congressional testimony.
|
 |
Excerpt from the Book
"Cessna 172, land on the orange dot and immediately turn left. Baron, left turn into the grass. Get off the runway now!
Orange aircraft, I don't know who you are, but land on the green doy and welcome to Oshkosh." Every year landing instructions like that come from the world's busiest landing tower during the annual EAA AirVenture show
Oshkosh is asmall Wisconsin city that hosts this largest airshow in the world. Thousands of aircraft flock to the show from all over the U. S. Hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators descend on the city. Oshkosh is like Mecca to aviation enthusiasts and it was the perfect place for Vern Raburn to introduce Eclipse Aviation, manufacturer of the world's first very light jet airplane.
|
|
Paperback
$24.95 / Perfectbound
ISBN: 9781457502972
342 pages
$9.99 / e-Book
ISBN: 9781457505539
|
|
