Eclipse Aviation Corp., a pioneer maker of small, low-cost personal jets, filed for federal bankruptcy-court protection Tuesday amid Beset by longstanding manufacturing problems, tightening global credit markets and negative publicity from some technical glitches with its so-called very light jets, the Albuquerque, N. M., company earlier this month temporarily failed to pay its 1,100 employees.

Eclipse builds six-seat aircraft aimed at private pilots, as well as what the company hoped would become a viable industry of air-taxi operators.
As part of the Chapter 11 proceeding in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, Europe's ETIRC Aviation, which holds nearly 65% of the closely held company's shares, indicated it plans to continue manufacturing operations as it moves to acquire Eclipse's assets.
ETIRC also is expected to be part of a group of existing shareholders and note holders planning to provide interim financing.
Other makers of small airplanes also have suffered from a softening market. Textron Inc.'s Cessna Aircraft Co. and Hawker Beechcraft Corp. previously announced hundreds of layoffs, as they race to cope with the downturn. On Tuesday, a spokesman for Teledyne Technologies Inc., a major supplier of piston-powered engines for small private planes, said about 15% of the 700-person work force at its engine-making unit has been laid off in the last two months.
The unit also closed for all of this holiday-shortened week as a cost-saving move, according to the spokesman. Teledyne started seeing a significant order decline in October.
Some industry officials speculated for months that Eclipse's ambitious production plans and subsequent delays had drained its cash reserves, even as the company scrambled to line up new financing by looking to European and Russian investors. Through it all, Eclipse said it maintained a hefty order backlog of some 2,000 planes and was pushing to ramp up sales in Europe.
But earlier this year, newly installed Chief Executive Roel Pieper indicated the goal was to become cash-flow positive by next spring while producing significantly fewer planes per month than initially planned.
Although makers of larger, top-of-the-line business jets project continued strong demand for at least the next few years, makers of several light personal jets previously ran into severe finanical turbulence.
In the case of Eclipse, the company's filing indicates estimated liabilities exceeding $1 billion and assets of between $100 million and $500 million. Eclipse owes investors and suppliers a total of more than $500 million, according to its petition.
In July, Mr. Pieper succeeded Vern Raburn, the charismatic former software executive who founded Eclipse and led the way with innovative aircraft design and manufacturing systems. But Mr. Raburn stumbled with his plans to build a powerful six-seat personal jet featuring advanced computers designed to take much of the work out of flying.
The goal of turning out planes in huge numbers, and building them in a particularly short time by relying on streamlined production methods, has proved elusive.
Eclipse also announced that Peg Billson, president and general manager of the company's manufacturing division, voluntarily left the company.
(Source: WSJ)