Private jets may no longer be a privilege of the ultra-rich thanks to a group of aviation mavericks
Flying takes off to new heights as a group of creative minds comes up with affordable private jets
A new breed of aircraft companies has emerged, aiming to bring personal aviation to the masses. Forget private jets - these companies want to put an actual plane on a consumer's driveway at home for the price of a Ferrari.
Some say we can even forget Ferraris - they're looking to give people their own aircraft for the price of a high-end Ford.
The highest profile of these companies in operation include ICON Aircraft, which is working on its amphibious light sport aircraft the A5; Cobalt Aircraft, with the Co50 Valkyrie, a five-seat, single-engine, propeller-driven craft; and AeroMobil, which wants to deliver nothing less than the world's first fully transformable flying car.
Welcome to the George Jetson future that our parents once thought was just around the corner - apparently it needed a few more decades to finally take off. The ICON A5 costs US$189,000, and the company hopes to have it available in 2016 - although people putting a deposit down today would have to wait until 2019.
ICON Aircraft CEO and founder Kirk Hawkins says: "We believe we [have] created one of the safest, easiest to fly, most fun and coolest light aircraft on the planet. Our mission is to make flying more accessible to the thousands who dream about it but consider it out of reach."
The Co50 Valkyrie, meanwhile, costs US$699,000 with a planned 2017 launch. The AeroMobil is yet to have concrete pricing or a launch date, but "around a few hundred thousand euros" has been quoted by those close to the project.
Design has played a key role in this new wave of aircraft design. ICON explicitly states that the company intends "to democratise aviation the same way that great brands like Apple, BMW, Ducati or Oakley democratise their products: by fusing outstanding engineering with world-class consumer product design. The end goal is to create products that not only deliver great functional benefit but also deeply inspire us on an emotional level".
AeroMobil agrees that good design is essential to the product's success. "It drives positive emotions and shapes expectation. The design is an inevitable part of the whole concept. We shouldn't see only the functionality of the vehicle, but also the aesthetical form of the object," says co-founder and CEO Juraj Vaculik.