Free Flight: A New Age of Air Travel

In James Fallows "free flight" he divides us into two categories when it comes to our interest in flying and planes. Enthusiast are those people, mostly males, that love the planes, the process of flying, the technology, and the lore of aviation. I trust all pilots are enthusiasts. The rest of us are civilians when it comes to planes and flying. I certainly am only a civilian. I have come to loath the hub and spoke commercial aviation system that has developed in this country. Fallows describes several things that are occurring that should modernize the air transportation system for a great many of us. I found myself excited about these new developments. I even can cite the different planes that will make air travel safe, fun, and convenient again. The Cirrus SR-20 with its parachute appears to be a great acheivement. Also the Eclipse jets are something I can not wait to see and eventually fly in. This book should be read by all of us who have ever flown. Also, city planners who have anything to do with transportation systems in their towns will find this book most interesting. Fallows has convinced me that the disruptive technology is here for the aviation industry. As the disruption occurs I will now understand why it is happening.

Having received Free Flight as a gift from an amateur pilot, I harbored little hope that the book would be comprehensible, let alone engrossing, to a commercial-only flier such as myself. How wrong I was. In a page-turner reminiscent of Michael Lewis at his best, Fallows explores the industry and culture of General Aviation (small planes) through the stories of two upstart airplane manufacturers. The reader is inevitably drawn in by the characters who populate the Cirrus and Eclipse companies. At the same time as he finds himself willing these entrepreneurs on in their struggle against the realities of economics and aeronautics, the reader also comes to appreciate the implications for the entire country if these men succeed. What seems at first an impossible fantasy, private planes for the masses and freedom from the yoke of large carries, comes to seem plausible and even likely. If Fallows's vision of the future is correct, Free Flight will serve as an invaluable introduction to the world in which we will all soon live. Even if America never boasts an airplane in every garage, Free Flight is still an irresistible snapshot of a world with which few of us are familiar.

For me this will be one of the books that makes me stop friends and say: You may not think you're interested, but just start reading and you will be. The news in the book is about the realistic prospect of an alternative to "airline hell." It's also about the very surprising campaign NASA has been waging to make better, safer, cheaper small planes a reality. The surprise is the human drama and human interest. It comes in several layers. One involves the author himself, who begins the book describing how he became fascinated with flying, and ends it describing a coast to coast trip with his wife and son in a little plane. Some passages in this are just beautiful, such as the view of Mount Rushmore from a small plane, or what flocks of migrating birds look like from above. Another layer involves the entrepreneurial struggle of the little companies he describes. This reminds me a lot of "The Soul of a New Machine," but in a different industry. There is even life and death drama, involving the death of a test pilot and the way that almost destroyed one of the companies. This is a great summer read, best of all for the next involuntary delay in an airport.

I first came across James Fallows's ideas about flying in an Atlantic Monthly piece and was fascinated in this new book with his ideas about the future of air travel. The concept of personal air taxis is apparently not farfetched at all. And the inconvenience we all endure by traveling hub-and-spoke through several dozen airports is unnecessary - a real revelation - as he points out that 6000 other airports have over 90% of their capacity unused.The book pokes holes in so many of the current arguments and proposed solutions for our air transport mess while highlighting the role of NASA - not the FAA or Boeing - as creative promoters of the future of sub-satellite transportation - something I'd never realized.The book makes me want to do what he did - learn to fly, get a plane and escape from commercial airline chaos - into my own skies that are friendlier than theirs.Buy it, read it and be amazed.

This is a fascinating read of how we descended into airline hell and how we may be able to dig our way out of it. The solutions grow out of great American entrepreneurship that have created nifty, new, affordable small planes; NASA's quiet research in navigation systems; and a realistic scenario for using the thousands of small airports around the country to support an air taxi system. The book is chock-a-block full of hard news that should replace the dull, familiar tag lines we always hear at the end of TV news reports on air traveller's nightmares, lines like "It'll only get worse before it gets better," or "Only this summer's busy travel days will tell.." Instead, we could soon be hearing about the new travel-on-demand systems that could take you, affordably, from Omaha to El Paso without passing through busy, congested DFW. Or we could be seeing demos of the parachute drop of the new little Cirrus plane (from the book jacket) that safely delivers passengers from the ill-fated JFK, Jr.-type scenario.Fallows is a small-plane pilot himself, and his passion for flying drives this book. It's easy-to-read and even funny. It dispels a lot of myths and explains away a lot of primal fears about stepping into small planes. It will fit right into your carry-on on your next trip. Buy it and pack it; you'll have lots of time to read it.