A team of British investors is set on deploying a fleet of six-seat,
single-engine turboprop planes, which will provide taxi services
for distances up to 1,000 miles. One of the aircraft’s key
selling points is its ability to use small airfields denied to most
other planes.
The U.K.-based venture, called Farnborough-Aircraft.com, is touted
as the “first ever” Internet-financed aerospace company.
Investments in the company, said a spokesman, come “directly
off the Internet.” The company also relies on the net for
employee recruitment and product advertising. According to briefing
charts presented during this summer’s Farnborough Air Show,
the company has 32 employees and plans to grow to 50 by year’s
end.
The six-seat (including pilot) all-composite aircraft is called
F1 and currently is being designed as a computer model, even though
the company had a full-scale mockup on display at the air show.
The F1 fleet, if it reaches fruition, will operate from more than
7,000 currently under-used small airfields in Europe and North America.
The goal is to transport passengers 50 percent faster than commercial
airlines and offer on-demand service at airline business-class rates,
company officials said.
The taxi service will allow Internet ticket booking and point-to-point
travel over distances up to 1,000 miles. Farnborough-Aircraft.com
officials said they plan to build and fly two prototype all-carbon
composite aircraft by 2002. They concede that funding is uncertain,
but are confident that the demand for the first-generation single-engine
turboprop commercial aircraft will grow to 300 units.
Preliminary market studies by the company predict a need for 13,000
aircraft to achieve a 5 percent share of the 1997 airline business
travel market in the United States and Europe. Airline growth is
expanding at 5-7 percent each year.
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration’s
decision to allow single-engine commercial flight in instrument
conditions open the doors for low operating-cost aircraft to take
the place of earlier twin piston and turboprop aircraft, company
officials said.
Farnborough-Aircraft.com is the design house, and as such will
only build three prototypes—two for flight tests and one for
a structural test, said company spokeswoman Barbie McSean. A separate
company will be set up to manufacture the aircraft, she explained.
The F1, expected to cost about $1.9 million, will use the Pratt
& Whitney PT6A turboprop engine. Officials determined that only
propeller aircraft have the ability to accelerate fast enough from
small airfields, and the existing propeller technology limits speed
to around 400 mph.
“As long as there are such limits on propeller efficiency,
the F1 can be expected to remain near the top of its class and possibly
in production for 20 years,” said a company statement.