Ground Clutter
Sound of Money
Show me the money! That expression sums up the cynicism of our society. Show me the money, or I won’t believe you. If you want to believe in the future of aviation, I hope you were at NBAA’s annual convention and trade show in Vegas, ‘cause that’s the where the money was.
By Ralph Hood
November/December 2004
The full stats are elsewhere in this issue, but I will tell you that the trade show had a record number of exhibiting companies. A record number of companies bellied up to the bar and laid their money down to exhibit. That doesn’t guarantee our future, but it does show that some mighty successful businesspeople do believe that we have a future, and a good one at that.
Companies like Boeing, Airbus, Gulfstream, and Bombardier were there, and their exhibits alone cost more than any airplane I know how to crank up. They were staffed by corporate types with blue suits, silk ties, and shoes that gleamed with a gentle luster to which my Rockports cannot even aspire.
And there was something new this year. The big buzz was the announcements of two — not one, but two — supersonic bizjets by two companies, Aerion and SAI. Both include big names in aviation, finance and design, and both sound like they know what they’re doing.
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The numbers alone make your head swim. We’re talking 4,000 miles range at Mach 1.6 to 1.8. We’re also talking about laying out billions, repeat billions, of dollars over the next eight years or so before the aircraft will be ready to sell at a retail price in the neighborhood of $80 million — give or take a few million.
I am struck dumb with wonderment. How can anybody plan ahead that far, raise the money, pay the bills, hold it all together, and make a profit eight years down the road? The people with the money think they can do it, and they’re willing to invest that money to prove it. More power to them and I hope they succeed.
Along those same lines, I went to a much smaller aviation meeting recently. Burt Rutan, builder of SpaceShipOne and Voyager, and one of the hottest people in aviation, was in Huntsville, AL, meeting with NASA folks. Burt agreed to speak for free in a hangar at my favorite grass strip, Moontown Airport. Details were handled by our local EAA Chapter 190, FBO/airport manager George Myers, and a zillion volunteers. For no charge we got supper and a Burt Rutan speech with plenty of time for autographs and photo ops.
Rutan pointed out that aviation grew rapidly after the Wright Brothers first flight as entrepreneurial types competed to build airplanes. Many of those airplanes were failures, but we learned from the failures. Rutan believes we are about to see a burst of growth in space, now that SpaceShipOne has proved that private money and efforts can reach it. In fact, Rutan already has an order from Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic airlines, for five larger spaceships. Sir Richard has the money (this is the guy who tried to buy the Concordes when they quit flying) and believes he can make a profit flying tourists into space.
Ralph Hood is a Certified Speaking Professional who has addressed aviation groups throughout North America. A pilot since 1969, he’s insured and sold airplanes at retail and distributor levels and taught aviation management for Southern Illinois University. Reach him at [email protected]