An exhibit at Orlando’s executive airport this past week was an airfield for dreams.
What’s it like cruising at 50,000 feet a whisper under the speed of sound in a G800, to alight on glaciers or river sandbars in a tiny Husky or to bring the family on an ACJ320neo, an airliner tricked into a flying home, for a nonstop to Tahiti?
Rumors of Travolta and Bezos attendance aside, the National Business Aviation Association exhibit in Orlando for the first time in four years was said to be the world’s premier display of personal, glamorized and corporate aircraft, and a few helicopters, parked nose to tail to wing for sale.
High net worth guys could shop for eye-popping Pilatus, Boeing, Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault, Embraer, Gulfstream, Honda and other makers’ planes. Confidential inquiries convened in swanky aircraft cabins off limits to ordinary net worth guys.
Consummating a jet deal can take many months to a decade of client relations, said a dealer, a pilot with a degree in aeronautical science and remarkably at ease in conversation.
There was pretty good swag, cocktails, espressos, high tables, petite lunches and men and women dealers and reps in dark suits and darker shades. Onsite retail admission was $725.
The towering tails of statement executive jets, with prices in the tens of millions, brought to mind elbows out elbowing for attention. Dwarfed among the big boys were single-engine jets, turboprops and piston-powered craft for millions of dollars and sometimes less.
In Europe, and its network of passenger trains, flight shaming users of private jets is in vogue. With climate change, and the quest for Earth-friendlier propulsion, perhaps the inventory at Orlando Executive Airport was an era’s swan song.
Aircraft gleamed with piercing edges, subtle curves and wow. If a visitor could bring one home, well, which?
The Orlando Sentinel recruited enthusiasts to explore that field of dreams for what enthused them most.
Jason Bucher is a Spirit Airlines captain in Orlando. He came with his son, Bradley, a University of Central Florida business senior and student pilot on an airline career track.
The Bucher family has owned small planes, a Twin Comanche and a Cherokee Six, flying to Bahamas vacations. That informed their choice: a Vision Jet made by Cirrus Aircraft.
It’s a family-size, single-engine jet capable of nearly 350 mph. The $3 million craft comes with a parachute for emergencies. The Buchers were not as taken with that feature as with a system that can automatically land the plane at the nearest airport if a pilot becomes incapacitated.
“I would be very comfortable with that,” Jason Bucher said, thinking of flying family and friends to the Caribbean with him as the only pilot. His son climbed in, noting the “sleek” design, “like a sports car.”
Banks Secor-Drazek is a UCF freshman from Orlando taking flying lessons, closing in on a pilot’s license and also having airline aspirations. His lessons are in a Cessna 172 at Orlando’s executive airport, where he taxis past executive jets like those at the exhibit.
His eyes fell upon a look-at-me craft, one that melds the visuals of commanding and gangly, a prototype of the Leonardo AW609 tiltrotor. It lifts off vertically as a helicopter and tilts its twin propellers forward to fly as an airplane. “I love to fly and I would like to fly this,” he said.
The aircraft, with seating options for five VIPs to nine commuters, has been in development for years. The prototype, its masked windows blocking interior views, was flown from Philadelphia.
“It gets the best out of a helicopter and an airplane,” Secor-Drazek said, noting its homage to the U.S. military’s V-22 Osprey. “I’ve seen a lot of jets but nothing like this.” Not many have, with a production date and price tag TBD.
Austi Tarter-Leclercq is a doer, Marine veteran, pilot, mom with three kids and owner of MaxFlight Helicopter Services at Kissimmee’s airport. Running late with family tasks, she took one of her helicopters for a quick hop to the FBO, fixed-base operator, adjoining the aircraft exhibit.
She so wanted to fall for a family-friendly aircraft, but failed unapologetically. Her favorite was a helicopter, an ACH130, which Airbus Corporate Helicopters describes as the “perfect balance between power and elegance.” Tarter-Leclercq’s appraisal was “super sexy.”
The ACH130 was a limited edition, the luxury British sports car Aston Martin edition. Aromas of leather-spiced luxury spritzed from open doors. With seven seats, the roughly $6 million copter sported the James Bond elan of a $300,000 Aston Martin automobile parked beside it.
“Super selfish,” Tarter-Leclercq said of her pick. “I can’t help it.”
A former mayor of Oviedo, Tom Walters is a retired Air Force colonel, navigator rated for four types of military planes and combat veteran. He put on big air shows at bases he commanded and he’s seen much aircraft evolution first hand, including while hugging Nevada desert supersonically.
At the exhibit in Orlando, Walters found a harbinger, capable of 100 mph, and called it his favorite with some delight.
Walters climbed into a very light, two-seat Velis Electro, the world’s first airplane running on electricity to receive a certification – from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, though not yet in the U.S.
Made by Pipistrel Aircraft of Slovenia, the plane has the range of an hour with the noise of a floor fan and costs about $200,000, which includes a charger.
“It’s unique and it’s the future for a lot of local aviation,” Walters said.
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