If affordable air taxi service ever comes to an airport near you and your favored destination(s), credit will no doubt be due to the group of presenters at a conference session hidden among many at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences' Transportation Research Board on Jan 15, 2003 in Washington, DC. I was fortunate to be among the relatively few attendees.  

Work of a NASA unit, the Small Aircraft Transportation System Program (SATS) led by Dr. Bruce Holmes, was a principal focus of the session. SATS is a driving force in the incubation of innovative technologies necessary to bring affordable, on-demand flight service by small aircraft in near-all-weather conditions to small community airports. It creates and finances laboratory consortiums of business members, which develop and test products to enable flight in and out of small non-tower airports, and provide better decision-making aids for pilots, among other objectives.  

The session was well-organized and moderated by Ken Stackpoole from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which is lead institution of the Southeast SATSLab Consortium. Dr. Holmes and representatives of four of the SATSLab groups (Maryland Mid-Atlantic, North Carolina & Upper Great Plains, Southeast, and Virginia) detailed their activities in the areas noted above, along with results of an air taxi market survey by one group. 

A key ingredient in reduced small aircraft travel cost is to have a much less expensive airplane -- in terms of acquisition and operating costs, the latter being most important, according to panelist Vern Raburn, CEO of Eclipse Aviation. He is out to disprove some "rules"; one, that commercial airlines are the only option for travel by air, and two, that it's impossible to build an inexpensive quality aircraft without cutting corners. His Eclipse 500 is one of the first of a new breed of under 10-seat jets in varying states of development targeted for an air taxi travel alternative to the airlines. The air taxi concept is so compelling, clear, and strong as to be sure to happen in his view. On the quality issue, he told how their revolutionary use of friction-stir welding for aircraft assembly cut the time to put together a 75-piece part from three work shifts to 31 minutes, and with better strength than traditional riveting. 

George "Rick" Adam, Jr., CEO of Adam Aircraft Industries and lifelong aviation enthusiast with a career in information technology, noted the stark contrast over the years in how much progress there has been in computerization and how little in airplanes. His disappointment with finding only 20-year old models available for some refresher training turned into founding a venture to build economical modern aircraft. His 6-seat A500 propeller and A700 jet models are in development with a key safety focus on reducing pilot workload. A unique feature of the A500 is the mount of its two engines on the front and rear of the fuselage. Much more takeoff and landing stability was said to be the result of this center-line thrust design.  

Were it not for the last speaker on the agenda, those of us outside of the aviation industry would likely have no idea of what's been going on in behalf of the U.S. air traveler caught in the airlines hub-and-spoke system with it's delays and remote mega-airports. James Fallows' public radio interview in the summer of 2001 and book "free flight..." (now in paperback) opened the door for us to discover the other more convenient flight option we look to have in the future -- air taxi with fares similar to the airlines. Mr. Fallows, also an aviation enthusiast and pilot, is National Correspondent for Atlantic Monthly magazine.

A mix of sobering and hopeful insights characterized his remarks, influenced by reactions to his book and events since then. In a nutshell, his observations of the plus-and-minus effects on the air taxi vision included (in ascending order of importance):

   • deep hostility toward and skepticism by the general public of small aircraft, illustrated rather poignantly in a phone interview before the meeting with a British spy. In spite of adventurous exploits including those with mortal consequences, he expressed being terrified of flying in a "little" plane, and never goes up in one.

   • the ongoing airline crisis and degradation of service with no quick solution.

   • warming of the public to the charter small jet travel model in reaction to the previous point.

   • on environmental objections to increased air traffic around small airports -- along with the warming to jet charter noted       above, there is a detectable shift away from the view of airports as nuisances, and that, in light of the airline problems,       perhaps having an airport five miles away is more of a good thing than bad.

   • security -- based on the "life is uncertain" principle, just maybe there is chance of a catastrophic terrorist event using a      small plane (even though considered less capable of large harm) causing similar negative effect as to the airlines after      9/11.

   • question of whether the goods can be delivered by the industry, with a friendly challenge in this regard to the aircraft       entrepreneur panelists and their industry peers. (For a scorecard of who has what aircraft in production and delivery,       see the Small Aircraft Manufacturers section on our "Links" page.)

One last note. Mr. Adam told of a German manufacturer, who, so far, has reduced the cost of developing a new aircraft engine from $250 million to $25 million. How is he doing it? By making a diesel with 85% of its components from the Mercedes auto parts list.

As this meeting of the minds revealed, innovation is alive and well.

2/10/03
 

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