Detroit by Mid-Morning, Washington, D.C. by Dinner

Automotive programme work moves between engineering centres, tier-one suppliers, and assembly plants on a cadence set by the launch calendar. Missing a build review is not a scheduling inconvenience; it is a programme risk. The Washington, D.C.–Detroit pair is a clean example: 358 nm apart, and awkward by every scheduled option.

Leave at 07 15, on site by 09 40, and the aircraft waits while you work. 6 h 25 m on the ground is a full session, and you are home by 18 30. The hotel night, the second working day, and the evening away all come off the cost of the trip — which is usually where the real money was.

Both ends of this pair have hub airline service, so there is a nonstop and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What the nonstop does not give you is the hour before it: the drive to the main terminal, the screening queue, the gate, and a departure time chosen months ago by a network planner. Door to door, the private version usually saves two to three hours in each direction — and it saves them at the ends of the day, where they are worth the most.

Neither end of this leg constrains the aircraft. That means short-notice departures are realistic and a schedule change on the day is usually absorbable rather than a rebooking exercise.

One type, learned properly. We place this leg with a Part 135 operator we already know on the Vision Jet, in an aircraft carrying CAPS — a parachute over the entire airframe — and a one-button emergency autoland any passenger can use. For a company putting four people on one aircraft, those are the specifications that matter.