SATS Life Cycle Costs in an Air Taxi Operation

In January of 2000 the first author delivered a Life Cycle Cost study [1] to NASA that modeled SATS in relatively “broad strokes,” guided by general technological forecasts, and theory based on the historical records of emerging industrial paradigms. The report was summarized in an SAE technical paper [2.] Since the delivery of the January 2000 report, the model has been continuously evolving in an independent University setting. This paper is part of an ongoing series of papers and presentations [3,] and reports interim results of a study that compared the Life Cycle Cost characteristics of three aircraft operating in an air taxi environment. The major conclusions point to the business necessity of properly aligning technology, asset utilization, operating capacity (scale,) and market share. Implications are presented.