PopSci's Best of What's New 2007

Aviation & Space
Eclipse Concept Jet

JETS GET PERSONAL

With price tags in the several-million-dollar range, small jets have mostly been corporate purchases. But the ECJ brings the cost of a jet closer to that of a private pilot’s prop plane. It features a novel placement of its single Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet—atop the fuselage and just forward of a V-tail, a configuration that generates better balance, aerodynamics and engine efficiency than other small-jet designs. Both faster and higher-flying than the propeller-powered airplanes you’d usually find at this price, the ECJ will cruise at 390 miles an hour at up to 41,000 feet. Test flights started this year, and production should begin in 2011. $1 million; eclipseconceptjet.com

SLIDESHOW
Alternate views

OTHER WINNERS IN Aviation & Space

	CNES Corot The Satellite Searching for the Next Earth			Cessna 162 SkyCatcher Light Sport Aircraft THE STARTER PLANE
	Vision Systems International Helmet-Mounted Display SUPER-VISION FOR FIGHTER PILOTS			NASA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy HAVE SCOPE, WILL TRAVEL
	Boeing EA-18G Growler A RADAR-JAMMING JET			ESA/EADS Astrium Automated Transfer Vehicle The space station’s delivery truck
	QinetiQ Zephyr MARATHON FLYER			Eclipse Concept Jet JETS GET PERSONAL
	Darpa Orbital Express A robotic handyman for satellite repair			V-22 Joint Program Office/Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey The tilt-rotor copter finally flies
	Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias Gran Telescopio Canarias THE WORLD’s LARGEST TELESCOPE