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