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Free Flight: Inventing the Future of Travel Paperback – September 3, 2002

by James Fallows (Author)

19 customer reviews

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The troubles of the airline system have become acute in the post-terrorist era. As the average cost of a flight has come down in the last twenty years, the airlines have survived by keeping planes full and funneling traffic through a centralized hub-and-spoke routing system. Virtually all of the technological innovation in airplanes in the last thirty years has been devoted to moving passengers more efficiently between major hubs. But what was left out of this equation was the convenience and flexibility of the average traveler. Now, because of heightened security, hours of waiting are tacked onto each trip. As James Fallows vividly explains, a technological revolution is under way that will relieve this problem. Free Flight features the stories of three groups who are inventing and building the future of all air travel: NASA, Cirrus Design in Duluth, Minnesota, and Eclipse Aviation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. These ventures should make it possible for more people to travel the way corporate executives have for years: in small jet planes, from the airport that's closest to their home or office directly to the airport closest to where they really want to go. This will be possible because of a product now missing from the vast array of flying devices: small, radically inexpensive jet planes, as different from airliners as personal computers are from mainframes. And, as Fallows explains in a new preface, a system that avoids the congestion of the overloaded hub system will offer advantages in speed, convenience, and especially security in the new environment of air travel.

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Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

After decades of stagnation, small-airplane technology seems poised to make the kinds of advances that revolutionized computers and cars. Fallows envisions an alternative to the hub-and-spoke cattle pens of conventional airline travel: a flexible, affordable, on-demand air-taxi system using existing small airports and soon-to-exist small planes that offer comfort, speed, and safety. His account of the development of two such planes—one of which features a huge parachute that can float the entire craft to a soft landing—combines the excitement of a boy's adventure story with the gadgety pleasure of a Sharper Image catalogue. And his prose is as clear and light as the blue sky of a perfect day for flying.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

About the Author

James Fallows is National Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, and has worked for the magazine for more than twenty years. His previous books include Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy, Looking at the Sun, More Like Us, and National Defense. Fallows has been a regular commentator on NPR. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: PublicAffairs; New Ed edition (September 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1586481401
ISBN-13: 978-1586481407
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 19 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,510,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #308 in Books > Travel > Food, Lodging & Transportation > Air Travel
- #3308 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Transportation > Aviation
- #75390 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government

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J. Tabarlet

Interesting but dated

August 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

This is a fine summary of what was, at the turn of the century, considered a probable development: a nationwide system of "air taxis" built around fast, small jet aircraft that could be flown point to point by qualified pilots or hired (along with a pilot) by groups wanting to get somewhere quickly that was not served by the airlines. There is a good discussion of the late-1970s deregulation of the airlines which led to the "hub and spoke" scheduling model which makes it really easy to get from New York to Chicago but very difficult to get from Austin to Sheboygan. There is also a fine elaboration on the history of the light aircraft general aviation industry, including a debunking of a myth I've heard numerous times--that the small aircraft manufacturers were driven nearly out of business by carnivorous lawyers and the high price of liability insurance. As Fallows shows, that was part of the story but not the whole tale by a long shot.

Overall, however, Free Flight is a period piece. It was published just before September 11, 2001 changed everything, not least the airlines and private aircraft. Moreover, one of the companies touted in the book as the harbinger of a new age of aviation innovation, Eclipse, went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the 2008 financial crisis (the other, Cirrus, is still a going concern). Very few of the events predicted in the book have taken place and the whole work has the feel of a book written right before World War I about the new age of peace and prosperity that would come in the second decade of the twentieth century.

Free Flight is worth reading, but it needs to be updated to reflect new realities.

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Newton Ooi

flying with the little guys

October 12, 2008

Verified Purchase

The author of this book, James Fallows, is a journalist and private pilot. This book is his presentation of an alternate mode of air travel that he believes is coming into existence; that is the use of small airplanes to connect people point-to-point using small airports, and avoiding the traffic and delays of major cities utilized by the current spoke-and-wheel model. This book is not really a history of American aviation, but instead focuses on several small companies that are on the leading edge of producing small aircraft for private use. The two major companies analyzed by this book are Cirrus and Eclipse, with mentions of Lear, Cessna and other companies of course. The author looks at the rise of these small companies, and their trials and tribulations in finding a market niche in the face of airline deregulation, economic winds and all sorts of regulations. And the author nicely includes pictures of these small planes.

The only drawback to the book was the over-personalization of the book. One whole chapter is spent on the author's cross-country flight with wife and son. Material like this could have been replaced with more history and economics of the small-aircraft industry. Some graphs and charts would also have been nice; for example a graph comparing the costs of different models of new single-engine aircraft over the past several decades.

Note that this book was authored before the 9/11 attacks, hence much of what the author proposed is really up in the air now.

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David Thomson

We must take a fresh post-September 11 look at "Free Flight"

September 23, 2001

Verified Purchase

James Fallows' superb book must be totally reevaluated after the terrorists attacks of September 11. Previous to that horrifying date, some may have wrongly concluded that Fallows was merely presenting another opportunity for the affluent Yuppie class to indulge in conspicuous consumption. Purchasing a small airplane still remains a luxury affordable by perhaps less than 2% of the general population. The small plane business model could compete against standard air travel pricing, but not the very inexpensive tickets that permit the very poor to fly. Our current national crisis, however, compels Americans to seriously look at all of their viable travel alternatives.
Small planes have become a more practical and less risky way to move around the country. This is especially true for flights under 500 miles. Airport security measures will significantly increase traveling time. A smaller plane has fewer passengers, and therefore a thorough security check should at least theoretically take only a few minutes. Companies may also feel more comfortable knowing that their top executives are not on board a larger airliner. Internet guru Esther Dyson said that "this book makes you want to go out and put down a deposit on one of the new aircraft." I suspect that Dyson originally made this remark dwelling only upon the aspect of added convenience. My gut impression is Ms. Dyson today thinks that she would be safer sitting behind the controls of her own airplane.
The smaller fuel tanks of the these airplanes limit their attractiveness to those embracing the terrorist mindset. These planes simply cannot be used as something akin to a cruise missile to destroy large buildings and major military targets. Also, pilots are well aware that they will be shot down if they deviate away from their assigned travel route. The U.S. Air Force is essentially being told to shoot first, and ask questions later! The distinguished journalist James Fallows had no idea that this book would be released only a few months before America went to war. We should be thankful that Mr. Fallows has performed this valuable service. "Free Flight" easily earns a five star recommendation.

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