OpenAirplane was a private for-profit company founded in 2012 by Rod Rakic. It intended to "make renting a (

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

) plane as easy as renting a car." The company ceased operations on 23 December 2019.

History

OpenAirplane was founded in 2012 as a web-based service to make access to rental aircraft easier. Pilots in the United States usually need a flight review (also called a "checkout") with a certified

flight instructor A flight instructor is a person who teaches others to operate aircraft. Specific privileges granted to holders of a flight instructor qualification vary from country to country, but very generally, a flight instructor serves to enhance or evaluate ...

at each aircraft rental company or fixed-base operator (FBO) that they wish to rent from, regardless of recent flight experience. This checkout can take several hours and the pilot must pay for both the rental of the airplane as well as the wage of the flight instructor. OpenAirplane requires member pilots to complete a standardized checkout procedure called a "Universal Pilot Checkout (UPC)" in a particular make and model of aircraft at an OpenAirplane member FBO. Once successfully completed, the UPC allows a pilot to fly the same make/model aircraft at any other member FBO without additional checkrides or experience reviews. The checkout procedure is based on the

Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a congressionally chartered, federally supported non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force (USAF). CAP is a volunteer organization with an aviation-minded mem ...

(CAP) procedure and pilots holding the relevant CAP approval do not need to carry out a further checkout. The company was endorsed by Starr Aviation, a member of Starr International Company (insurance), and the

Cessna Aircraft Company Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...

. OpenAirplane launched on June 17, 2013 with operators in six US locations:

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

Kissimmee Kissimmee ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Osceola County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 79,226. It is a Principal City of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area, wh ...

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, and San Jose. As of Sep 2014, OpenAirplane had grown to over 71 locations. At Sun 'n Fun 2014, OpenAirplane announced the expansion of their program to allow privately owned aircraft to be rented through OpenAirplane. Insurance carrier Starr Aviation created a new kind of insurance policy that offered coverage for aircraft owners who wanted to make their aircraft available to pilots using OpenAirplane. The new policy is claimed to only be a modest increase in cost compared to group rental coverage that typically costs four- or eight-times as much as a personal aircraft policy. In Oct 2014, OpenAirplane and Cirrus Aircraft Corporation announced a collaboration where pilots who complete Cirrus factory training are able to rent the same model Cirrus aircraft in the OpenAirplane network without needing an OpenAirplane checkout. The privilege is valid for six months, after which the pilot will need to complete a normal OpenAirplane UPC. The company shutdown on 23 December 2019. Founder Rod Rakic blamed the company's failure on lack of market interest. He stated "while the idea of OpenAirplane won us praise, fans, and even super fans, the reality is that too few pilots took to the skies to make the operation sustainable. If there’s one thing that we learned the hard way, it is that it’s tough to get pilots off the couch and into the cockpit."

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.openairplane.com/
Official website archives
on

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

AVweb interview with Rod Rakic, the co-founder of OpenAirplane
General aviation Aviation websites Internet properties established in 2012 2012 establishments in Illinois 2019 disestablishments in Illinois