In its May issue, the Atlantic magazine is features a sprawling 5,000 word article by James Fallows on the rise of air taxi service DayJet. Fallows marvels at length at the assemblage of brilliant minds and entrepreneurial spirit responsible for DayJet’s arrival as a major player in the world of aviation, bound to change the way people travel in this country for good. Fallow’s trenchant, if sometimes overly enthusiastic article (having been inside an Eclipse 500, I had to disagree with his description of the interior as being “the size of an unusually roomy SUV’s”) makes for a good read, and, appearing in a magazine with such a wide general appeal as the Atlantic, it would seem to be a boon for the industry as a whole.

The only problem? Well just a few days after it hit news stands, DayJet announced it had run into financial trouble and would have to scale back immediately. While the company retools, it is laying off between 100 and 160 employees and selling or leasing out 16 of it 28 aircraft. With steadily rising fuel costs, more than a few analysts have doubts about the long term prospects for the “per-seat on demand” model DayJet has introduced in the Southeast.

The double irony is that this isn’t the first time that Fallows, a former amateur pilot, was burned once before for too heartily drinking the VLJ Kool-Aid. Back in 2001, he wrote another expansive article for the Atlantic on the imminent rise of personal aviation, waxing on its destiny to democratize the skies. Unfortunately for Fallows, his enthusiastic prediction ran up against a post-9/11 general aviation environment which imposed stricter controls on air traffic, as well as failures on the part of manufacturers, most notably Eclipse, to deliver their product on time.