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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (2307)	7/16/2002 3:37:33 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

If we focus on the current dreary state of the markets, we might lose sight of the next innovation. But don't overlook this idea: Air taxis. Over the weekend in Albuquerque, N.M., I witnessed the unveiling of the Eclipse 500, a new sub-$1 million jet with a revolutionary engine that's designed to create a whole class of air travel. Eclipse was founded by Vern Raburn, a former Microsoft executive and serial entrepreneur in the high-tech industry. The first jet won't be available until the first quarter of 2004, but it's clear that Raburn needs to start spreading the gospel about just what to do with them. Translation: He needs to create a marketplace. The idea he's envisioning is an air taxi service. How does he see this working? The cost of operating a jet is some 56-cents per mile, per jet. That's a low cost for a company that might want to shuttle people from, say San Francisco to Lake Tahoe. For example, if I want to go to Tahoe from San Francisco, Raburn says it could cost me $60. Sure economics are beginning to make sense, but the other big question marks are whether the jet works and how long consumer adoption will take. Raburn says we'll see Air Taxis on a small scale in 2005 and much larger adoption by 2010. Listen to interview with Raburn. Also part of this new jet idea is Dan Schwinn, the founder of Shiva, a company that was the predecessor technology to access the Internet. After Schwinn sold Shiva to Intel (INTC: news, chart, profile), he started Avidyne, which is helping Eclipse become the first Internet-enabled jet. Watch for upcoming profiles on both Raburn and Schwinn and their next venture, which is about bringing the advances in technology to aviation. See related story: Rate your chances of success as an entrepreneur.