The subversive thing (and subversive is smart!) about this type of air charter humor is that it makes a funny point while permeating the collective psyche with the Eclipse name. While no one can afford one, many will talk of them, and talk of the rich family that bought one. In a utopian world we would buy our jets at WalMart, but the reality is that you have to get buyers to buy enough of them to support a large sustained production run. (That is, in order to pay the investors back someday.) The Walmartization of the Eclipse and the VLJ concept is indeed a great road to charge down for April Fool's day, but it does cause one to wonder (again):Who will buy these in large numbers?

While cozy relationships between the press and Eclipse can yeild great press like this most air charter comrades simply get headaches as they try to wrap their mind around this April Fool's joke. (Again, if it is not a joke, I am very very sorry for this post.)

The further irony of this post is that one might argue that Eclipse doesn't see what is coming, which is that most of the new prospects have enough money to buy "their first jet" but so few of them understand "the WalMart effect" which is surely what Eclipse is hoping for. Hope, it has been said, is not a strategy, and therein lies the strange nature of this prank. Yes it is absurd that you'd buy a jet at WalMart. Yes, Eclipse is unique.

But let us think hard: Of the 400,000 plus pilots in the United States, how many can afford to spend over a million bucks on an asset that will in all likelyhood, not be the ideal taxi cab? (Not when those old tired turboprops are ready to work hard or as hard on the same mission profile, for the same cost.)

How many successful cab companies have launched their business, with a brand new car, that has never been on the road before (in the day to day grind?)

How many financial people would recommend buying "new" assets in a business where most of your financial pain comes from high capital carrying costs and massive related overhead?

I rest my case. Willing to admit I am wrong, but won't get off soap box until proven so. Next week we'll discuss the Google Space Elevator and how well VLJ's glide when dropped from the top.