Meet the Jet Sons

imagine a day when business travelers can call a jet airplane to pick them up, just as they do taxis. A day when passengers can fly between meetings in two, three, even four different communities in a single day and still be home that evening. A day when even small- to mid-size companies can afford their own private jets.

Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts, because that day is nearly here. A new breed of super-small, super-fast jet aircraft is preparing to take to the skies as soon as this month, and it could transform flying forever.

For R. Scott Cameron, a Naples real estate broker, it can't be too soon.

"I can come to my office [in Naples], have a breakfast meeting, get a couple of hours' work done, leave the office and be in a luncheon meeting in Orlando and get back to the office and still have a productive afternoon here," says Cameron, who currently shuttles himself around in a Seneca III twin engine.

These new jets are referred to by different names, including "microjets" or "minijets." In the aviation industry, they're most commonly called "very light jets," or VLJs. If you're a frequent flier, remember that acronym. You're going to hear it a lot in the coming months and years. "They are going to make some significant changes in business travel," predicts Cameron.

new dimensions

A typical VLJ usually weighs less than 10,000 pounds, flies with a single pilot and carries four to six passengers. Some appear barely bigger than a large SUV. Nonetheless, they fly at speeds and altitudes as high as the big boys.

Perhaps the most important attribute of a VLJ is its ability to land on runways in the 3,000-foot range-far shorter than what's needed by the current breed of business jets or commercial airliners.

Proponents of VLJs say their little planes will be able to land at approximately 10,000 general aviation airports around the United States that are largely unused by many or all jets. Here in Southwest Florida, that means airports including those in Immokalee, Everglades City, Marco Island, Venice, Arcadia and LaBelle.

With VLJs, business fliers will be able to go from one small town to another without having to drive to big-city airports or make connections through the

airline hubs.

"Now you can fly Naples to Daytona Beach to Sarasota and back again in the same day," says Andrew Broom, manager of public relations for Eclipse Aviation Corp., of Albuquerque, N.M. "The one-day business trip will be alive and well again."

by the numbers

Despite promises that VLJs will fly into underutilized airports in out-of-the-way communities, some believe this is a red herring. "Early research shows that 50 percent of all VLJ flights will begin or end in one of the top 16 major metropolitan markets in the country," says Basil Barimo, the vice president of operations for the Air Transport Association, which represents 19 major commercial and cargo carriers, including Delta, United and FedEx.

Peter Modys tends to agree. He is the division director for aviation with the Lee County Port Authority, which oversees both Southwest Florida International Airport and the smaller Page Field Airport.

He believes it's unlikely that all of the 10,000 smaller airports promoted by the VLJ industry can really handle the jets. They generally don't have weather reporting systems and other features needed to serve the jets' users.

Pipers, Cessnas and similar small airplanes are used primarily for leisure, so they can more easily change plans if weather turns bad, he explains. But the VLJs, used primarily by business executives and as air taxis, are more likely to rely on airports with infrastructure to help keep them on schedule.

"The new VLJ system will need to use those airports all the time to be effective," says Modys. "They can't cancel a flight because it's raining."

The smaller airports "have the fundamental abilities to handle these aircraft, but they don't really have the improvements necessary to take full advantage of the technological advances in VLJs. To make this system really work, we have to get all those airports caught up," he says.

And there's real worry about the ability to safely manage the already-crowded skies, especially around large airports. "We are concerned that these aircraft, which will operate in controlled airspace, will overwhelm an already-strained air-traffic-control system," says Barimo. "From an air-traffic controller's perspective, handling a VLJ is no different than handling a 737."

The Federal Aviation Administration conservatively predicts nearly 5,000 VLJs will be flying by 2010. NASA has done studies estimating a far higher number, closer to 20,000.

a relative bargain

The VLJs' appealing price tag-about a third of the cost of existing business jets-is likely to fuel demand. The most inexpensive VLJs start at about $1.3 million. Operating costs are lower, too-roughly $250 to $730 an hour, according to some reports. "People who are buying high-performance single-engine piston airplanes or twin-engine piston airplanes can now buy a jet for the same cost or sometimes cheaper," says Broom.

Adam Aircraft of Colorado, Cessna of Kansas and Embraer of Brazil are all in the chase to get the burgeoning VLJ industry going, but Eclipse Aviation appears to be in the lead. Its Eclipse 500 is nearly ready to go. Five Eclipse 500s are currently flying as part of the testing phase, awaiting final certification by the FAA, probably by the end of this month. Other companies are looking to have their VLJs certified later in 2006, early 2007 and beyond.

That's good news for Lou Meiners, a Naples attorney and owner of Advocate Consulting, a firm dedicated to helping individuals and companies choose, finance, purchase and maintain aircraft. It also assists clients with the complicated tax and liability issues that come with airplane ownership.

Meiners also is a pilot and plane owner. He has had enough of what he calls the ever-increasing problems and ever-decreasing service of the big airlines. "I'm not just talking about taking away peanuts," says Meiners, who has four VLJs on order himself. "The way they cancel flights, the way you can't depend on them. They give you unrealistically low-quality service."

It's this frustration with current commercial air travel that many feel will drive demand for VLJs, especially among time-is-money business travelers. "If you have ever flown private aviation, it's really hard to go back to airlines," says Broom. "It's just so convenient."

One of the primary uses of VLJs likely will be what the industry calls "air taxi." Just like the cabs that cruise the streets of big cities, air-taxi jets would fly to a nearby airport, pick up a passenger and fly to his or her destination airport.

Eclipse Aviation officials say they have orders for more than 2,400 of the Eclipse 500s. About two-thirds of those are going to start-up air-taxi companies, with the rest destined for owner/operators and corporate flight departments.

Southwest Florida business travelers could be some of the first to experience the air-taxi option. Delray Beach-based DayJet, founded in 2002, has teamed up with Eclipse Aviation to launch a "per seat, on demand" jet service-an air-taxi operation.

Aviation officials with the Lee County Port Authority say DayJet representatives have visited Southwest Florida as they scout possible locations for their "dayports." The company hopes to officially commence business soon after the Eclipse 500s receive the FAA's OK.

"As a businessman, I would pay for my own employees to use an air-taxi service rather than have them go out a day early and spend the night," says Meiners. "To have the employees have the flexibility to come back home that night would be invaluable from a productivity standpoint."

A big issue for any community is noise created by planes landing at nearby airports-an issue that led to litigation at Naples Municipal Airport. VLJ enthusiasts say noise is unlikely to be a problem with these new high-tech aircraft.

Broom explains it as "basic physics." His company's VLJs are smaller and made of lighter, often composite materials, and the lower the weight of the plane, the less thrust the jet's engine needs. Ergo, it's quieter.

Besides a little bit of extra training for ground crews, Lee County's Modys says the arrival of VLJs isn't a big deal from an operations standpoint. "It's really just a size difference," says Modys. "They're very small, but they're still turbine powered, they're still pure jets. You can compare it to the larger jets-the Challengers, the Learjets, the Westwinds.

"They're all turbine aircraft, and they're here now. This new generation is going to be a new turbine aircraft taxiing up to the ramp, but basically it's the same airplane."

Despite the gushing enthusiasm in some camps and the dire concerns in others, of one thing there is no doubt: Very Light Jets are coming to an airport near you, and they're coming fast. Barring unforeseen hang-ups, VLJs could be flying into Southwest Florida airports within a matter of months.

For now, Cameron is still flying his trusted Seneca III. However, he's keeping a close eye on VLJs; and when prices drop, as they likely will do in the coming years, he plans to buy one for himself.

Then destinations far outside the range of his current plane will open up to him, and he'll likely kiss flying commercial airlines goodbye, once and for all. "For bargain prices, you have to fly where they go and when they go, with thousands of other people," says Cameron. "These VLJs should fit in nicely."