True Point to Point Aviation

DayJet of Boca Raton, Florida has been in operation since October of last year, and has recently announced service to Alabama and Georgia as well as their home state of Florida. Their business is to use Very Light Jets (VLJs) to transport passengers from and to numerous airports in its coverage area, including airports not well serviced by larger commercial airplanes. I wish them the best with their venture.

But, as I've pointed out in earlier posts, aviation passengers really would want just about any and all locations to be departure and arrival points, not just airports. VLJs, like all fixed wing airplanes, need runways and that decidedly limits where they can take off and where they can land. True point to point commuting can only happen with a fixed wing VTOL (vertical take off and landing) airplane, which not only needs very small vertipads for points of origin and points of destination, like a helicopter, but also can fly at speeds of 300 knots or more.

Dayjet currently and other companies in the next year or so provide a valuable service to anyone who finds using the larger airlines for traveling less than 1000 miles is often counterproductive and inconvenient. But, why not expand that service to its full potential? I've worked on a VTOL airplane for a number of years, called the Arc Wing VTOL airplane. It will be almost as fast as a VLJ, more economical because it uses propellers instead of jets, and will be almost unlimited in its ability to service any location. And like a VLJ, but unlike a helicopter, it is aerodynamic and therefore easier to land if engine problems arise.

The in-depth story of this airplane is provided here.

Are VLJ’s the solution for General Aviation?

The recent news about the bankruptcy and subsequent sale of Very Light Jet (VLJ) manufacturer Adam Aircraft (as reported in the Denver Post), brings to mind the difficulties of making any aviation business a success. Why might it be hard to make a general aviation business prosper? Well, maybe we are making and selling the wrong kind of aircraft.

Why should planes go from airport to airport when people really want to go from where they currently are to their real destination? VLJ’s are just faster ways of traveling from one airport to another airport. But, who really wants to be limited in their travel to that? What people would really want if they had the choice is a way to fly directly and quickly from one destination to another.

My earliest inventive work concerned making a aircraft that could take off and land vertically - a VTOL airplane. That form of craft can fly fast and yet is not limited to taking off and landing at airports. This plane combines the vertical capabilities of a helicopter with the speed and aerodynamic qualities of a fixed wing plane. As such, it travels much faster and also more cheaply than helicopters - which are much slower than fixed wing planes - and it requires only small Vertipads for places of origin and destination. You can read more about this airplane, which I call the Arc Wing VTOL here.

And, I’ll talking more about this in other blog posts.