I remember drooling over their mockups at Oshkosh (was that 76 and 77, or 77 & 78?). They sure were pretty. I remember them displaying one of those cute little Williams turbofan engines (600 or 800 pounds of thrust) and the allegation that one had been stolen. It would've been wonderful in a LongEze but explaining where you got it would've been tough. It all sounded like a publicity stunt at the time. I guess Tony Fox thought that if Jim Bede could rip off thousands of pilots and break their hearts, he could do the same.
Today, I drool over planes like the Eclipse 500, Adam 700, and several others, knowing all the while that I'll never be able to own one. At least these are flying hardware with the Eclipse 500 set for certification in a few months. With the backlog, even if I had the $1.2 million or so, it'd be a couple years before I could get my hands on it.