It’s hard to believe that there’s so much buzz around an Albuquerque aviation company whose planes have yet to come off the assembly line. Nevertheless, pundits at Business 2.0, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Newsweek, and the New York Times can’t stop writing about Eclipse Aviation and its big enchilada, Vern Raburn.

First, some history: Back in 1979 when Bill Gates and Paul Allen were starting Microsoft, Raburn was one of their first hires. The fledgling company envisioned a computer so powerful, compact, and inexpensive that one day, computing would cease to be the realm of elite institutions and instead, there would be a computer in every office and every home. (Don’t laugh as you read this story from the comfort of your PC! Remember 1979? We actually thought eight-track tapes were convenient.)

These days, the radical Raburn is taking the Microsoft concept to the skies, building a small plane that will be lighter, simpler to land, and more affordable than those that have gone before it. On top of that, the Eclipse 500 jet has a projected price tag of $1million—about one-fourth that of a similar jet built by competitors Cessna and Raytheon. If Raburn’s vision becomes a reality, two things will happen. First, more individuals (albeit wealthy individuals) will be able to own private planes. Second, John Q. Public will be able to buy a ticket on an air taxi for about the same price as a mainstream commercial flight.

Already, burgeoning U.S. air taxi firm Nimbus Group and Swiss start-up Aviace have ordered fleets of Eclipse 500s, scheduled for completion in 2006.

Eclipse Aviation’s search for a home base began in 1998 with a list of 90 sites, which the company eventually narrowed to six. In the end, Albuquerque, New Mexico, beat out cities in Utah and Arizona. “Eclipse wants a long-term relationship with our customers,” explains Raburn. “And we wanted to be in an attractive destination. New Mexico is something of a destination.” Raburn also cited the professionalism of Albuquerque Economic Development in cementing his decision to locate here. “They were very responsive and had complex questions answered in at least 48 hours,” he says.

As the New Mexico Business Journal noted, Eclipse Aviation stands to do for Albuquerque what Dell did for Austin and Microsoft did for Seattle.