VLJ Visionary Vern Raburn Dead at 75

Vern Raburn, the aviation entrepreneur and founder of Eclipse Aviation who also served as an executive vice president of Microsoft and CEO and chairman of Symantec, died Saturday in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was 75.

Raburn, known for his keen sense of technology, enjoyed a career that included serving as executive vice president of Microsoft in the early days of the company. He would go on to become the CEO and later chairman of Symantec before joining the Paul Allen Group, where he handled investments for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, an athletic and aviation enthusiast.

Raburn learned to fly as a teenager and had a passion for both aviation and technology. He held multiple certificates and ratings, including commercial, instrument, multiengine, and rotary wing, and had multiple type ratings. He logged more than 6,500 hours in everything from single-engine piston trainers to World War II bombers to corporate jets.

In 1998 he founded Eclipse Aviation and introduced the concept of the “very light jet” (VLJ). Raburn believed that this new class of jet would make point-to-point travel more accessible,  especially if the twin-engine machine cost less than $1 million.

Raburn, with the help of another tech entrepreneur, Ed Iacobucci, founder of VirtualWorks and co-founder of Citrix Systems, developed the Eclipse 500. The aircraft was a six-place design with a range of 1,200 nm. Iacobucci founded DayJet around the point-to-point concept and ordered 1,400 of the Eclipse 500s.

The prototype first flew in August 2002. There were some changes—notably the Williams EJ22 turbofans were replaced by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F. In 2005 the Eclipse prototype earned the Collier Trophy from the National Aeronautic Association.

Raburn is perhaps best remembered for introducing the aviation world to friction-stir welding, a new manufacturing technique that he asserted would significantly lower production costs and enable Eclipse Aviation to keep the aircraft’s price down.

The first Eclipse was certified in 2006 and delivered in 2007. DayJet was the largest customer, purchasing more than two dozen Eclipse 500s. This led to financial challenges for Eclipse and, combined with a certificate review, forced the company into bankruptcy in late 2008. 

In August 2009, Eclipse Aerospace bought the assets to maintain support for the upwards of 260 aircraft that had entered service.

Named a Living Legend of Aviation in 2005, Raburn served on the board of directors of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), the executive council to the FAA’s Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee (REDAC), and the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Presidential Advisory Board.

Raburn is survived by his wife, Susan Brooks Raburn.