Mark Huber is an aviation industry veteran who has worked in the flight training, aircraft sales, aircraft component, and airport development businesses. He has flight time in more than 50 different and diverse aircraft, including helicopters, aerobatic aircraft, vintage warbirds, jet fighters, business jets and turboprops, and transport-category aircraft. He has jumped out of several of these—on purpose—with a parachute. His defense and aviation journalism has been published in a variety of national and international periodicals.

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Mark Huber

Your next helicopter ride is just a smartphone app away. And when Manhattan traffic is snared in gridlock, what could be more convenient?

 


During the Pope’s recent visit to New York City–and ensuing ground traffic nightmare–helicopter service Blade was offering rides via its smartphone app from the East to the West side via the southern tip of Manhattan for $95 a seat. Bye bye, gridlock. Of course that’s not the service’s métier. It emerged two years ago as a comparatively painless way to <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2014-06-03/crowdsourcing-comes-nyc-helicopter-charters">escape Gotham to the pleasures of the Hamptons</a> and since then more than 45,000 have downloaded the company’s smartphone app, which lets you book whole helicopters, crowd-source them or hitch a ride on a flight someone else has originated.

 


Blade itself is not a Part 135 operator; it partners with Liberty Helicopters for that piece of the business. Blade merely packages the service, from the smartphone app to the decidedly retro lounges at Manhattan’s West 30th Street, East 34th Street and 23rd Street heliports. Its Bounce service can deliver you to any of the area’s airports in six to 12 minutes with 20 minutes’ notice for $895 for the whole helicopter. During the summer last year, Blade booked 800 trips to the Hamptons. That attracted the attention of some heavy-hitting investors, among them Google chairman Eric Schmidt; Discover Communications CEO David Zaslav; IAC’s Barry Diller; Alex von Furstenberg, Raine Ventures; and iHeart Media chairman Bob Pittman. Together they have helped to raise almost $6 million. The company now has a valuation of $25 million.

 


Blade was founded by former Warner Music COO Rob Wiesenthal, who had the idea to do for helicopters what Uber did for the taxi business. It didn’t take long for the idea to catch on.

 


It has since expanded to Blade Aqua, a seaplane service that runs from Manhattan to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard in season.

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