Things have been quiet on the website as of late while I work behind the scenes to get everything moving forward and upward. As you might guess, airplanes run on money, not just AvGas. The prospects for FBJ have been growing steadily, with long term planning. Aviation projects are like airfoils, the more money you have the more the airfoil resembles that streamlined, aerodynamically slippery object that cuts through the air and develops lifting force with great efficiency. Right now we have a brick, though a brick will fly quite far with enough thrust, it is not really designed for flight. I am providing as much thrust as possible.
So here we are, The Plan, is to keep moving forward on the adventures, keep moving forward on the plans to build a WWI Fighter replica, and continue to develop the behind the scenes infrastructure that will keep us going into the future. I think at this juncture a little organizational transparency is in order, FBJ at present is me, just me. I have been talking to others about getting involved with me on the front lines and have gotten some positive responses, nothing I can post just yet. And no, Burt Rutan is not joining up with FBJ. I will be creating some static information pages here on the site including a Crew page soon.
Our first operational year budget is $250K, to begin that year we need $150K in the bank and commitments for another $50K. We can float the last $50K on potential commercial sponsorships. This first year will be the toughest to get funded, I believe we can meet our subsequent annual budget with sponsorships and media revenue. So I need six to ten of you with 25 grand burning a hole in your pocket to email me today. Well, if you don’t ask…
As you can see, we need sponsors to get things moving in a vertical direction. I am out beating the brush looking for private and commercial sponsors. The hurdle for most is in handing over money to a new entity, particularly in the current economic environment. In the months to come I will be working to reduce concern about this element by getting the media wheels turning and getting some product posted. This should help alleviate some of the trepidation for commercial sponsors.
The projects are still in the works as are the adventures. Like many developing projects, we are taking more time to get going than we would like too. That’s okay, a slow build yields a long term concern, a meteoric rise tends to burn out just as quickly, and in a fiery ball hurdling back to Earth at mach something. I’ll go with slower and long term thank you.
See you next time, for now… The wheels are still turning.
~FBJ