Small, speedy, cheap jets may transform flying

To the radar scope and to the controller, there's no difference between a little jet and a jumbo jet.

If only 2 percent of commercial air passengers move from jetliners to very light jets, Blakey said, that will triple the number of takeoffs and landings that air traffic controllers have to handle.

"You say, ‘Whew, we're going to have to be prepared for this phenomenon,'" Blakey said.

The FAA is moving away from navigation by controllers on the ground to navigation by pilots in the cockpit, using the satellite-based Global Positioning System and powerful computers.

Satellite-based navigation will permit more airplanes to fly closer together, Blakey said. She believes that VLJs will prod the government to push more quickly toward a satellite-based navigation system.

Blakey is concerned that VLJs will clog the single-lane highways in the sky above 18,000 feet ( 5,400 meters), where large jets fly. Unlike turboprops, which cruise below 30,000 feet (9,000 meters), VLJs cruise at the same altitude as jetliners — between 30,000 and 40,000 feet (9,000 and 12,000 meters). But they cruise at 430 mph ( 692 kph), considerably slower than a 737, which flies at 500 mph (805 kph).

Raburn, who's been a pilot for 40 years, said that's not a worry. "The sky ain't crowded above 18,000 feet (5,400 meters)," he said.

He envisions a national network of air taxis, for-hire limousines with wings that will be able to land at thousands of runways where jetliners and executive jets can't. VLJs can land on runways as short as 3,000 feet (900 meters), compared with the 4,000 or 5,000 feet (1,200 or 1,500 meters) required by the smallest jets now being flown.

VLJs will come equipped with high-tech safety and navigation equipment, which will allow them to fly into small airports in less-than-ideal conditions. Adam Aircraft's A700, for example, sells for $2 million and has more sophisticated avionics in the cockpit than a $40 million Gulfstream G5, said company president Joe Walker.

Others dismiss VLJs as so much pie in the sky.

NASA, which has been promoting VLJ technology, asked the National Research Council to report in 2002 on the feasibility of the concept. A committee of retired aviation industry executives and academics gave it the thumbs-down.

"The committee does not share NASA's vision," the report said, noting that aircraft could never be affordable for large numbers of people and businesses. It further concluded that they wouldn't attract passengers if they didn't serve big cities, and they couldn't use small airports that don't have navigation aids, control towers and radar. Noise would keep them away from small airports that did have such equipment, the report said.

Walker predicted the jets will appeal to wealthy businessmen eager to avoid the unpleasant and time-consuming experience of getting to an airplane at a busy airport. "It's uber-first class," he said.

Raburn differed from that characterization. "It's uber-convenience," he said.

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