ALBUQUERQUE — Eclipse Aviation founder and chief executive officer Vern Raburn has stepped down and has been replaced by the man who heads the cash-strapped jet manufacturer's European partner and is chairman of the company's board.

Roel Pieper, who also is chairman of the European Technology and Investment Research Center Aviation, or ETIRC Aviation, will take over the Albuquerque company immediately as acting CEO, Eclipse announced Monday in a news release.

The company said Pieper's leadership is part of an agreement that brings with it a new round of financing that will give the company a positive cash flow. The amount of the cash infusion was not disclosed.

"It is now time to take the company to the next level of growth and operational excellence and this is what the board has tasked me to do," Pieper said in the news release. "I will work toward this goal in the coming period."

Raburn, who headed the company through its 10-year anniversary this year, will be vice chairman at ETIRC Aviation and help with global expansion of the Eclipse 500 jet plane, the release said.

"I am proud to have led the team that succeeded in creating the very light jet category and shipping the safest ... aircraft in decades," Raburn said in the release. The company said he would not be available for an interview.

The company made the announcement from the 56th annual Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture — an international air show — in Oshkosh, Wis.

Mike Press, an Eclipse owner and head of the St. Louis-based Single-Pilot Jet Management LLC, said he thinks the change of leadership has been in the works since earlier this year when the partnership between Eclipse and ETIRC Aviation was announced.

"I think that was always in the plans for Vern to step down at some point. I mean, he's been there for 10 years," Press said. "It's not a hostile takeover. It might be a takeover of convenience."

The leadership change comes as Eclipse struggles to ramp up production of its Eclipse 500.

Eclipse also is set to be investigated by the U.S. Transportation Department and, last month, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the company to immediately inspect its throttles after an Eclipse jet made an emergency landing in Chicago.

Raburn had dismissed the moves by the federal agencies as political grandstanding.

Mike McConnell, vice president of marketing and sales, said the throttle troubles and a 30 percent price jump to $2.15 million per aircraft announced in May have not affected orders for the Eclipse 500.

Eclipse has received "some" requests for refunds, he said. The company has produced 230 jets to date and has 2,300 outstanding orders, he said.

The company announced layoffs of an undisclosed number of people last October, but has hired 755 full-time and temporary workers since January, a spokeswoman said.

"We're still struggling a bit with a couple of things and the big one is with our suppliers," McConnell said in an interview Monday. "We've got to get to the point where we're more predictable."

He said suppliers have failed to ship parts in the quantities promised.

In January, ETIRC came to Eclipse's rescue with a more than $100 million investment in exchange for expanding its territory into Western Europe and the United Kingdom. That new partnership also saw Pieper appointed to chairman of the board.

The two companies had worked together for five years with the ETIRC providing sales, customer service, maintenance and flight training for Eclipse in Russia, the former Soviet republics, Turkey and Eastern Europe.

McConnell said the company hopes to boost production to two aircraft a day by next year. He declined to disclose the average daily production level, saying only that the plant sometimes produced one aircraft per day, sometimes less.

When the company delivered its first plane on Dec. 31, 2006, it had claimed it could produce four aircraft a day.

McConnell said the leadership change will not affect the Albuquerque plant or plans announced in January to build a plant in Russia.

Pieper was en route to Albuquerque to meet with about 2,060 employees there, company officials said.

The U.S. Transportation Department is preparing to investigate allegations by a group of FAA test pilots and inspectors in 2006 that the FAA rushed certification of the Eclipse 500. The grievance did not contain specific allegations, and the FAA has stood behind the aircraft's safety.

In June, the FAA, in response to an urgent recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board, ordered immediate inspection of throttles after an Eclipse 500 made an emergency landing in Chicago. Eclipse has said it would upgrade its software and emergency manuals to prevent any further problems. No one was injured in the landing.

Raburn was credited with introducing the very light jet — known as the VLJ — category of aircraft into the industry. With two engines and seating capacity for five or six people, they cost less than the most inexpensive business jet planes now in service.

Press called Raburn an "icon" in aviation history.

"I think the VLJ is here to stay and he's the one who made it happen," he said.

The FAA estimated last year that at least 4,500 very light jet aircraft will be in service 10 years from now.