U.K. Internet Venture Investing in Fleet of Six-Seat Turboprops.

A team of British investors is set on deploying a fleet of six-sear, single-engine turboprop planes, which will provide taxi services for distances up to 1,000 miles. One of the aircraft's key selling points is its ability to use small airfields denied to most other planes.

The U.K.-based venture, called Farnborough-Aircraft.com, is touted as the "first ever" Internet-financed aerospace company. Investments in the company, said a spokesman, come "directly off the Internet." The company also relies on the net for employee recruitment and product advertising. According to briefing charts presented during this summers Farnborough Air Show, the company has 32 employees and plans to grow to 50 by year's end.

The six-seat (including pilot) all-composite aircraft is called Fl and currently is being designed as a computer model, even though the company had a full-scale mockup on display at the air show. The FL Fleet, if it reaches fruition, will operate from more than 7,000 currently under-used small airfields in Europe and North America. The goal is to transport passengers 50 percent faster than commercial airlines and offer on-demand service at airline business-class rates, company officials said.

The taxi service will allow Internet ticket booking and point-to-point travel over distances up to 1,000 miles. Farnborough-Aircraft.com officials said they plan to build and fly two prototype allcarbon composite aircraft by 2002. They concede that funding is uncertain, but are confident that the demand for the first-generation single-engine turboprop commercial aircraft will grow to 300 units.

Preliminary market studies by the company predict a need for 13,000 aircraft to achieve a 5 percent share of the 1997 airline business travel market in the United States and Europe. Airline growth is expanding at 5-7 percent each year.

In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration's decision to allow single-engine commercial flight in instrument conditions open the doors for low operating-cost aircraft to take the place of earlier twin piston and turboprop aircraft, company officials said.

Farnborough-Aircraft.com is the design house, and as such will only build three prototypes--two for flight rests and one for a structural rest, said company spokeswoman Barbie McSean. A separate company will be set up to manufacture the aircraft, she explained.

The Fl, expected to cost about $1.9 million, will use the Pratt & Whitney PT6A turboprop engine. Officials determined that only propeller aircraft have the ability to accelerate fast enough from small airfields, and the existing propeller technology limits speed to around 400 mph.

"As long as there are such limits on propeller efficiency, the Fl can be expected to remain near the top of its class and possibly in production for 20 years," said a company statement.