Northwest Aerospace News February | March 2019 Issue No. 7 | Page 25

13,000 airports
1,000s of airports
Fast swap or recharge
Point-point and hub feeders
GPS navigation
35,000 airports
Distributed regional electric air network
Regional hybrid-electric aircraft
Optimal regional speeds
Quiet, comfortable cabin
Range-optimized
Futureproof
Where would the planes fly?
Research shows that some 90 percent
of trips taken by Americans are less
than 500 miles, and that’s the niche
Zunum seeks to fill and exploit, Knapp
said.
“There’s a huge market there that air-
lines cannot serve right now,” he said.
“That’s exactly the problem we’re
trying to solve.”
Think smaller cities, Knapp said. “You
can’t fly a 737 between Sea-Tac and
the Tri-Cities. That’s just silly.”
Or you could think big, like Los An-
geles to San Francisco. Now, Knapp
said, traveling between the two cities
means a 375-mile trip through some
of North America’s worst traffic, or a
90-minute airline flight, to which you
must add another hour or two on both
ends for parking, check-in, security
checks and boarding.
What Zunum is offering is a chance to drive to one of the two dozen or so
general aviation airports scattered around the two cities, park your car along the
airstrip a few minutes before takeoff and fly directly to the airport closest to your
actual destination on the other end, shaving time and hassle on both ends and
paying a ticket price comparable to what the major airline would charge.
To make it work, Zunum’s going to have to pull a page from technology giants
– Apple in particular – who have been able to create high-demand products that
consumers didn’t think they needed before they existed.
It won’t be easy, critics say.
FEBRUARY | MARCH 2019 ISSUE NO. 7
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