There was no shortage of buzz in the early years of the 21st century as pioneers of the so-called very light jets (VLJs) set about revolutionizing the private aviation industry. If that sounds familiar to eVTOL evangelists, it’s because there were some common threads in that trend. There were also some important lessons to be learned from a market trend that never quite lived up to all the hype.
Generally, VLJs were defined as aircraft that had been approved for single-pilot operations and had a maximum takeoff weight of less than 10,000 pounds. Their relatively low acquisition cost and ability to operate into smaller airfields were supposed to make them the proverbial game-changer for the air taxi market.
It is this benefit of hindsight that two industry veterans are now seeking to share in a bid to help investors make sense of the risks and opportunities associated with what could be characterized as Advanced Air Mobility 2.0 (with the VLJs having been version 1.0). Paul Masson, managing director of Strategic Alliances Resources Network (StarNet) has joined forces with Ken Ross, who spent more than eight years on the leadership team of Eclipse Aerospace—the company behind the Eclipse 500, one of the leading VLJ contenders—and who now runs KRG Global Consultants. Ross and Masson are applying an “evolutionary innovation” business model to their joint consulting practice.
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