Free Flight: Inventing the Future of Travel Paperback – September 1, 2002

I was really excited about this book: I'm a serious aviation enthusiast and an admirer of James Fallows' writing over the past several years.In *Free Flight* Fallows reveals himself to be an enthusiastic promoter of general aviation. Fallows begins by helping readers unfamiliar with small airplanes understand a little bit about the strange world of private pilots and their buzzy little machines. He paints a clear picture of the world of aviation enthusiasts--and what it potentially has to offer to the general public.The book is devoted primarily to the topic of research and development that has been going on since the early 90s aimed at making small airplanes safer and more accessible to the general population.The book closely examines two new aircraft manufacturers at the forefront of these developments (Cirrus Design and Eclipse Aviation) as well as some of the visionaries within NASA and other government agencies who have been promoting a concept of safe, affordable travel between secondary airports that skirts the congestion and delays of today's hub-spoke airline system. Finally, Fallows chronicles a trip of his own in one of these advanced small airplanes.Fallows skillfully avoids the worst of the aviation technical jargon, and brings the subject to life through portraits of some of the very interesting people at work in the field.For all of his cheerleading for the future of accessible general aviation Fallows also gives a fairly realistic assessment of the risks to this vision, though he devotes far less ink to the negative side of his subject.Whether you're an aviation enthusiast, private pilot, or just a frustrated airline passenger *Free Flight* has much to offer. Let's hope that the future is as bright as Fallows suggests it can be.

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.

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.