HOW WE STARTED
We have a boat in Florida by the Kennedy Space Center and in 2006 I was sitting on the bow watching the Shuttle land. After it had landed I was considering the runway and how it could be used. I thought how great it was to see the Shuttle land and how exciting it would be to land an aircraft there.
After some time and with one thing leading to another I came up with the idea of the Shuttle Landing Experience®. I then had to see if anyone would want to use an attraction like this and decided that I would have to set a price that was inexpensive enough for everyone to be able to experience it. I came up with the price of $49.00. I conducted a survey of people in the area as well as the customers at the visitor’s center at the KSC and found that people were excited about our attraction and thought the price was more than fair. I contacted NASA and they were also excited about the concept but because of security and the fact that the Shuttle program was still operating we could not establish the business at that time.
Once the Shuttle program ended they lifted the restrictions on the air space and the SLE was born! I contacted the FAA and received the authority to operate the business, trade marked the idea and we were off.
WHAT IS THE SHUTTLE LANDING EXPERIENCE ®
We have 3 levels of the experience
Level 1
We take you up in our Beechcraft aircraft to about 2,500’ over the Kennedy Space Center, Port Canaveral, Merritt Island and surrounding area and conclude with a flight over the Shuttle landing facility at 100’, This adventure lasts for approximately 30 minutes.
Level 2
Enter our facility and dress into a flight suit. You will then receive a video briefing from an astronaut and then go to our embarking area. Board our Cessna 310 aircraft and climb to 8,500’. You then descend at approximately 6,000’ per minute, and 200 mph down to 100’ above the runway.
Level 3
Enter our facility and dress into a flight suit. You will then receive a video briefing from an astronaut and then go to our embarking area. Board our Aerostar or King Air aircraft but for this experience climb to 14,500’ and descend at close to the same rate of descent and speed as the shuttle!
For the thrill seekers, levels 2 & 3 give you a sense of what it was like for the astronauts.
We have these 3 levels so just about everyone can experience to some degree what it was like for the Astronauts to land at the KSC.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
We have 2 aircraft at this time. Level 1 is operating with the Beechcraft and we have almost finished the Cessna 310 so that we can start Level 2. We are weeks away from this. Next we have to obtain more aircraft, then modify and paint them which we are planning for the very near future. Level 1 is operating out of Arthur Dunn Airpark in Titusville. Level’s 2 and 3 will start at Space coast regional Airport and we are hopeful that we will be able to operate from the Kennedy Space center in the future.
OUR GOAL
What we are trying to achieve is to give everyone the opportunity to experience the technology of the space program, at a price everyone can aford and enjoy.
WHY WE NEED HELP FROM INDIEGOGO
As with all new businesses there are numerous risks involved but we have done a lot of work to ensure success. When I came up with the concept, I first did a proof of concept analysis beginning with initially coming up with a price. The price, in part, is based on the number of passengers that will use our attraction and also takes into account the fixed costs per hour and the operating costs per hour. Our survey of the visitors at the KSC visitors complex and local residents asked, ‘would you be interested in an attraction like ours and do you think the price is fair’? The results were that 25% of the people surveyed would want to go on our attraction and considered the price to be too low.
I believe in the principle of sell more for less and make more profit because of the increased number of people using our business. This way you make more money and get great word of mouth marketing because of happy customers.
Since the cancellation of the Shuttle program there has been a loss of employment in Brevard County and in particular the Titusville area. Our attraction will bring more people to the KSC and Titusville which will mean more employment for the local area, which needs all the help it can get. We have been receiving tremendous local support as they believe we will become a major attraction, which will again help the area.
On March 10th, 2003, two men broke into our house and tried to kill my wife and myself. I was lucky enough to be able to fight them off. I have been writing a book about what happened to us and if you like you can read some excerpts here.
Because of this event we moved to a life between the US and Canada. We just recently received our visa to start the business here in Florida but as we are Canadians starting a business in the US, we cannot use any of the Banks here. Our credit ratings are good in Canada but we have no rating here and the Canadian banks will not lend money as it is not in Canada.
We lost over a million dollars because of the attack and we have used up most of our savings on the SLE so any help we can get will be sincerely appreciated. We need to finish the modifications of our aircraft and purchase another aircraft as well as ground support equipment.
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Thanks
John