— PHOTO: AP

CO-OWNERSHIP: Vern Raburn (centre), President, Eclipse Aviation, holds up keys to the first customer-ordered Eclipse 500 to Randall Sanada (left) Jet-Alliance Chairman, and David Crowe, an owner-pilot, who purchased a share of the aircraft (very light jet), in a hangar at Eclipse Aviation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Thursday. — PHOTO: AP

ALBUQUERQUE (NEW MEXICO): Eclipse Aviation has made a major voyage with a very small jet.

The company run by a former Microsoft executive and backed by Bill Gates, has become the second in the U.S to deliver one of the new planes, known as microjets, ``very light jet,'' or VLJs, which are expected to fill the skies over the next decade. They generally have two engines, five or six passenger seats and automated cockpits and cost half as much as the most inexpensive business jet now in service.

Eclipse President Vern Raburn on Thursday handed over the keys to the first customer-ordered Eclipse 500 to Jet-Alliance Chairman Randall Sanada and David Crowe, an owner-pilot who purchased a share of the aircraft.

"This aircraft represents the end of the development era for Eclipse,'' Mr. Raburn said during a ceremony inside an Eclipse hangar. ``We are now a company. We have a transaction. We give Dave an invoice and Dave gives us money.''

Only privately owned Eclipse Aviation, whose second-largest investor is Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, and Cessna Aircraft Co., a unit of Textron Inc., have received Federal Aviation Administration certification for the jets so far. Cessna delivered its first in November. — AP

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