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Small Aircraft Transportation System
Today, for trips of 500 miles or less, traveling via major metropolitan airports is no faster than traveling by car. More than 80 percent of all domestic U.S. airline traffic takes off from or lands at one of the 50 busiest airports. And the system is being stretched so tightly that a single disruption can ripple across the country and around the world, inconveniencing travelers thousands of miles away.
Think of SATS as future highways in the sky. Across the United States, thousands of small, third-tier, community airports could attract some of this air traffic - thanks to a new generation of aircraft designed to carry eight to 10 people on short hops. With new flight control technology, these planes would give general aviation pilots flight capabilities that approach those of commercial pilots. The goal is to make flying as simple - and as safe - as driving a car. Thinking globally, SATS could have exciting possibilities in developing countries that have no transportation infrastructure, places in rural China or rural Thailand, for instance. "SATS may have the potential to catapult ahead of other technologies, analogous to the rapid acceptance of wireless communications in Asia," said Noel Greis, director of the Kenan Institute's Center for Logistics and Digital Strategy.
The Center is part of a North Carolina team that received a $1.5 million grant to study SATS' feasibility as a safe, cost-effective complement to large air-carrier service. Four teams across the country are studying the project. NASA and the Transportation Research Board asked Kenan Institute Director John D. Kasarda to serve on a committee that will offer expert guidance on issues critical to the program. The Center for Logistics and Digital Strategy will conduct a market assessment to determine the appeal of this idea to businesses and a mathematical simulation model to assess the profitability of this "air taxi" in North Carolina. The power of SATS as a global, "disruptive" technology is exciting to Stuart L. Hart, a strategic management professor and expert in innovation and change, who studies how corporations can tap into markets in developing countries in environmentally sustainable ways. "Where would this functionality be highly desired, and where are the needs great? In places such as remote, rural areas of the developing world, where you're never going to get road systems because of the rough terrain, but where there's a real need for some transportation infrastructure to move people, goods and services," Hart said. Working jointly with Greis' team, which is looking at the demand side of the equation, a team of second-year MBA students - Rafael Martin, Taylor Rhodes, Brad Spickert and Laura de Ramel - will examine the supply side. Their practicum project will address which business models make sense for SATS. "For businesspeople dependent on airline travel, SATS holds the promise of cutting down on door-to-door travel time. The idea of not having to go through the major hub-and-spoke system is very compelling," Martin said. "Examining this disruptive technology in its earliest stages is very exciting." Web Links to Articles: More info:
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he business school's Kenan Institute is playing a major role in the development of a program that could open the door on a new mode of business travel - the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the organization many people associate more with travel to the moon than travel by plane, is developing an alternative system that avoids traffic congestion and flight delays found at major airports.
