News
Honda to build small, fuel efficient jets
Honda, known for its small cars, plans to offer what could become the Honda Civic of the skies. The Japanese automobile manufacturer said yesterday that it would build a fuel-efficient jet, following in the footsteps of a long line of car companies that have tried their hand at aviation....
On-demand private jets nearing takeoff
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--A decade from now, small, energy-efficient planes will crisscross the skies, taking people directly to their destinations faster than today's jets can, a new breed of aviation start-ups say.....
Air taxis: Changing the way we fly
Two aging computer geeks are setting out to reinvent business travel. As Business 2.0 reports, it couldn't be happening a moment too soon.
(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Vern Raburn is gunning his 500-horsepower Ford Shelby GT on a high desert road behind the airport in Albuquerque, N.M. He hits a pothole but just presses harder on the gas. After all, he has struggled for nine years to get his small-jet startup off the ground--battling skeptics, losing an engine, and burning through nearly $750 million--and he's not about to slow down now.
Radical new Boeing aircraft takes flight
The company's new blended-wing plane prepares for its first test, carrying with it the airline's hopes for fuel-saving planes.
(Business 2.0) -- -- It would be a dream come true for the airline industry: A plane that uses up to 30 percent less gas to reach its destination, compared with today's jets. That's the promise of the blended-wing, a radically new kind of aircraft set to take to the skies for the first time this month. Originally conceived by McDonnell Douglas and developed by NASA, the blended-wing merges fuselage and wings and eliminates the tail, reducing drag. That makes it vastly more fuel-efficient than regular "tube-and-wing" jets, according to Boeing engineer Norm Princen.
Forget Flying Cars. Meet the Drivable Plane.
Still waiting for your flying car? Here's the next best thing: the drivable plane
(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Carl Dietrich was born long after the Jetsons first flew from the Skypad Apartments to Spacely Sprockets, but that won't stop him from trying to turn us into a nation of Georges and Janes - albeit ones with standard two-car garages. The 29-year-old aeronautics Ph.D. candidate at MIT is also CEO of Terrafugia (from the Latin for "escape the earth"), a Somerville, Mass., startup building the Transition, which Dietrich says is not so much a flying car as a "roadable aircraft." That is, a two-seater plane with fold-up wings that you drive home at the end of your flight.