18-Year-Old California Entrepreneur Sells Flights on Vintage Jets

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http://abcnews.go.com/Business/kid-entrepreneur-18-sells-flights-vintage-airlines/story?id=19315576#.Ua3zXEDCZ8E

 

A California teenager has figured out a way to do what plenty of adults wish they could -- turn a hobby into a money-making business. Sean Burris, 18, sells flights on vintage jetliners to fellow aviation history buffs.

His company, Classic Jet Tours, has sold two flights so far.

The first, in 2011, was aboard a British Aircraft Corp. business jet from the late 1960s (a BAC 1-11-400), described by Forbes.com contributor Matthew Stibbe as having a retro, Howard Hughes-style interior. Stibbe, noting that there were only eight such aircraft still flying, described the charter as perhaps the last chance most aviation fans would have to fly onboard this historic plane.

And not just fly: Burris tells ABC News that customers on his charters get more than just a seat. "It's a social event," he explains, "with the plane as its centerpiece. They get to do a meet-and-greet with the pilots. They go into the cockpit and get to see all the instruments, which, on older aircraft were more complex, because there was less reliance on computers."