The SkyMax Aircraft
The aviation industry produces and operates large commercial airplanes almost exclusively for the purpose of transportation. In contrast, cruise ships, scenic trains and tour buses are produced not to sell transportation, but to sell adventure and the pure enjoyment of travel.
People however, imagine far more adventure and are far more fascinated with aviation and its world of flight than they are with the world of ships, trains and buses. We see this fascination in ads for many things from wristwatches to frozen pizza. We also see it in Hollywood movies, IMAX films, television programs, museums, magazines, amusement rides, software and video games, toys, hobbies, air shows, and characters like Sky King, Superman and Snoopy.
Although there is universal interest in adventure travel as well as the world of flight, there is no aircraft designed to serve these two immense and closely related markets.
Skymax is an idea for a thirty-seat airliner designed simply to fly low and slow and give its passengers a comfortable quiet ride and an unprecedented panoramic view - the view that aviators know - the one that is, in fact, "the wonder of flight. "
Scheduled fleets of these unique aircraft would serve a network of franchised resorts complete with STOL runways, hotels, restaurants, shops, and ground transportation systems. These resorts would be conveniently located at the juncture of scenic flight paths that wind through magnificent places like the Grand Canyon, the Sahara, Nazca, Africa's Plains and the Outback. In hours, days or weeks vacationers could retrace the journeys of Columbus, Polo and the Pioneers, and see things like the entire Mississippi, the Nile or the Great Wall, even entire continents from coast to coast.
A worldwide leisure air travel network that presents the wonders of the world through the wonder of flight is an idea that would invite the public to explore the Earth like a great theme park while enjoying the reality of man's venerable dream.