Unlike the previous book, Free Flight, by Jim Fallows, is a joy to read. Instead of two months of staggered, sporadic efforts, I started and finished this book about the possibilities for general aviaton in a day. As a partial coincidence, I had enough time to read this book yesterday because I was flying home from Phoenix, on a commercial flight (the antithesis of general aviation). Total travel time was nearly five hours, including drives to and from the airport, and the waiting. Total time in the air was about 100 minutes.
Free Flight tells of two new airplane companies and their attempt to re-make flying, with support from NASA and a host of folks interested in bringing flight into the technological age. Cirrus Design and Eclipse Aviation are the focus, though not the only companies mentioned. This entrepreneurial pair jointly fill the role of Data General from The Soul of a New Machine (company struggles to get revolutionary product out the door). Fallows spends most of the book using these two companies to explain why flight has stalled, so to speak, and needs restarting. He also comes at the problem with an eye honed by years of looking at technological disruption, so my Tracy Kidder reference probably has more truth than I know. I’m not much of a flying buff, but I’m eager to see if the hub-and-spoke gets disrupted in my lifetime. One can only hope.
Disclaimer/FYI: I know Fallows a little bit from my time at The Atlantic.