Lure of VLJs and the humble origins of commercial aviation represent the two ends of a spectrum defining humankind’s unquenchable thirst for flying. Precisely why this edition is truly unputdownable.

Very Light Jets (VLJs) pose a dream and a dilemma. The dream of taking to the skies without the hassles and time frame normally associated when travelling on commercial airlines; and the dilemma of ensuring stringent safety measures while enforcing the distinct criteria for pilot training. Reporting on the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Corporate, Air Taxi & Personal Jets conference held in London on March 18 and 19, SP’s correspondent for Europe Phil Nasskau affirms that a recurring theme at the convention was that of safety and pilot training.

Statistical accident data corroborated that aircraft operated by a single pilot have a 50 per cent higher accident rate over a two-crew aircraft. Addressing the gathering, Captain John Cox of the Flight Operations Group pointed out that this trend applies even when the single pilot has more experience than a typical First Officer of a two-crew aircraft. Cynics, meanwhile, have also raised the spectre of the skies getting crowded with these upstarts piloted by inadequately trained individuals.

How does one define a VLJ? In layman’s terms, a VLJ’s design allows for single-pilot operation for the aircraft weighing less than 10,000 lbs maximum gross takeoff weight and with the capability to carry four to six passengers. That’s the bare statistics. Advantages that stick, making the VLJ hottest of corporate possessions (an estimated 5,000 are expected to take to the skies by 2017), is—yes, you guessed right—price and time. No queues. No interminably delayed flights. No last minute cancellation of business meetings. No eavesdropping strangers. All of that at a cost much less than a business jet. All of a sudden, retraining the organisation’s aviation department appears not so big a deal after all. Driving home the advantages, José Eduardo Costas, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Embraer Executive Jets, Asia Pacific, writes on the state-of-the-art features of the Phenom 100, designed with the primary objective to offer more value for money to corporate bigwigs. For the military, Orville Prins, Vice President, Business Development, Lockheed Martin, India outlines the air-to-air combat capabilities that make the F-16IN Super Viper the ultimate 4th Generation Fighter.

Euphoria fuelled by the advent of the VLJ necessarily dictates a scrutiny of the remarkable evolution charted by the commercial aviation industry. Merely a century ago, on May 14, 1908, in the US, the first passenger—Charlie Furnas—had entrusted his life to Wilbur Wright, who took him aloft and brought him safely back to Earth. In 1913, Igor Sikorsky developed the world’s first large, four-engine plane. Le Grand could carry seven passengers and stay aloft for nearly two hours. It had a plush cabin (with a lavatory, private suite and bed) and cabin heating and lighting. On August 25, 1919, the British airline, Aircraft Transport and Travel, inaugurated a regular, sustained, civil, daily (Monday to Saturday) passenger service between London and Paris. It was probably the first such scheduled service in the world. A host of such engrossing nuggets of information feature in the first installment of a series of articles in SP’s Aviation tracing the incredible journey of humans taking to the sky like fish to water.

Still on this page?