Air-taxi fails amid 'open warfare'

AS a modern British adventurer, Richard Noble has few peers. He dramatically reclaimed the world land speed record for Britain in 1983 when he drove his jet car Thrust II at 633mph across the floor of the Black Rock Desert. Fourteen years later, his Thrust SSC vehicle - this time driven by nerveless young RAF pilot Andy Green - burst into the record books by becoming the first car to breach the sound barrier.

But the business career he launched on the back of his global reputation as one of the great buccaneers of our age has been far less successful. As with many visionaries turned entrepreneurs, the skills needed to blaze a Boy's Own trail through history are not necessarily those needed to launch and run a successful business. Far from it, in fact.

Earlier this week, liquidators were appointed to the company he founded and ran, Farnborough-Aircraft.com, following a bitter feud with the experienced business partner he bought in to help find long-term funding.

The business had been founded in 1999 to develop a six-seater carbon composite air-taxi aimed at beating the appalling logjam at the world's major hubs. The Farnborough F1 was designed to be a single-engined, turbo-prop capable of taking off and landing at the 7800 under-used airfields dotted around Europe and North America.

Business executives would be able to 'hail' an F1 over the internet and fly to an airstrip close to their meeting, avoiding the hassle of a bottleneck at a major hub airport.

With only one engine and high utilisation, these so called hubbusters would be highly efficient with a cost per passenger of only half that of a conventional jet. Great idea. Trouble is, the project is still at least five years away from production, despite Noble's original forecast that the first flight could take place as early as this year, and has already swallowed £3.5m of cash without generating a single penny of revenue.

Worse, a steaming row has broken out between the founder and retired optical industry entrepreneur Geoffrey Galley, the man Noble roped in to fund the project.

Noble admits the dispute turned into 'open warfare' over the future ownership of the intellectual property rights to the F1, the company's only worthwhile asset. For his part Galley, who plans to take the project on, has accused Noble of blocking his every attempt to save the company. Although the project is far from dead and Noble has admitted his role in it is over, the bitter wrangle has dealt a terrible blow to a brave vision.

The company still owes £719,000, including more than £200,000 to the Inland Revenue. Liquidators at accountants Baker Tilly will have to clear a path through the legal minefield left by the dispute between the former partners. It is not even clear who owns the intellectual property rights.

If the F1 does get off the ground, Noble will justifiably be able to take the credit for the brilliant vision that lay behind it. But, unlike the world speed record vehicles, it will not be his train set.