OpenAirplane
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
OpenAirplane simplified aircraft rental for general-aviation pilots away from their usual flying base.
02 / OpenAirplane FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Co-founder Rod Rakic said pilots’ expressed interest did not translate into enough actual use. The accompanying report separately attributed FlyOtto’s closure to insufficient growth capital; that explanation must not be substituted for OpenAirplane’s.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
OpenAirplane was founded in Chicago by pilot Rod Rakic and software developer Adam Fast as a web-based service making rental aircraft access easier, centered on a standardized Universal Pilot Checkout (UPC).
- Launch
OpenAirplane launched on June 17, 2013 with operators in six US locations; a pilot who completed one UPC could rent the same make and model at any member operator without another checkout.
- Expansion
The network grew to over 71 locations and gained endorsements from Starr Aviation and Cessna; at Sun 'n Fun 2014 it launched a program letting privately owned aircraft be rented through the platform.
- Shutdown
On December 19, 2019 co-founder Rod Rakic announced that OpenAirplane was shutting down: reservations were suspended on December 23, 2019 and support ran through December 29. The shutdown was orderly, with vendors paid before the company.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Pilots expressed interest
- 02
Actual use fell short
- 03
OpenAirplane ended operations