Air & Space

It is always cool when extreme aircraft and exotic cars collide, like today in Washington at the ‘Angle of Attack’ show!  Held at the Museum of Flight, Angle of Attack is an aerodynamic kinship between exotic cars and aircraft that also benefits area animal shelters, a win-win event of epic proportions!  Many of the cars on display at this event are available to you in any of our exotic rental car fleets nationwide.

Love exotic cars?  Want to play fighter pilot for a day?  Love the Mojave Desert?  While the later may be a bit quirky, you can now merge these fantasies in a 3-day all-out supercar meets open space extravaganza!  The event, hosted by Bluefish, is called ‘Supercars in the Mojave’  (original).

The event is to take place March 22nd, 2010, so if this is something you can’t miss, you better catapult your ass out of your chair and make the call.  If you miss it, do not cry like a...sad person, just call us and reserve one of our fast and furious exotic rental cars Miami or from our Los Angeles exotic rental cars instead...and some track time.

The 3-day adrenaline rush includes the following:


It’s A Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a Jetlev

Here at the Chicago branch of Imagine Lifestyles, we usually refer to flying as getting behind the wheel of one of our exotic sports car rentals and cruising down Lake Shore Drive 10-15 mph over the speed limit.  However, after a recent discovery, we hope to soon be actually flying over Lake Michigan.  Unfortunately, we are not purchasing any new luxury charter planes or helicopters but we are hoping to get our hands on a Jetlev as soon as possible. 

This is right up there with scientology and the new Ferrari FF hatchback on the weird scale.  It seems that some space fans have volunteered for a likely one-way trip to Mars…without ever being asked.  Within a month of reading “The Human Mission to Mars:  Colonizing the Red Planet”, approximately 400 people have written the editors to volunteer for such a trip.  I guess a space shuttle could be more exotic than even a Lamborghini rental Miami style, but the fear factor is pretty intimidating.

Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, has won an estimated $250 million in long-term maintenance support business from Cathay Pacific.  Cathay will provide TotalCare long-term services and support for the Trent 700 engines that power the new Airbus A330 aircraft produced by Rolls-Royce.  Confused yet?  Allow me to explain that Rolls Royce is far more than just luxury automobiles and exotic car rentals, but an entire fleet of engines covering land, sea and air!

Looking to make that next flight more interesting with perhaps an arranged hook-up?  There is an app for that.  Yes, the next time you spy a hottie in your terminal that is definitely going to be on your flight, but are unsure of just how to break the ice other than bragging about the exotic rental car you have waiting for you in Miami, you can simply check your ‘Planely’ app, and see if she is on it.

Gulfstream knows luxury jets, and for the swanky G550 business jet, they have ‘pulled out all the stops’, so to speak!  The Gulfstream G550 is an ultra-long range luxury business jet charter that has been setting records since its inception, beginning with a nonstop flight from Seoul, South Korea to Orlando, Florida in 14.5 hours, just two weeks after it entered service.  This model certainly stands out among other private jet charters!

In fact, the G550 Gulfstream luxury jet established around 40 city-pair records within its first five years of service, not too shabby for a $50 million dollar advancement in aviation!  Don’t worry, it is available for charter for far less, and there are always light jet charters and medium jet charters for smaller trips.  The G550 jet effortlessly links Washington D.C. with Dubai, London with Singapore and Tokyo with Paris, removing the angst of commercial air travel from business trips.

It seems that Singapore Airlines is one of the top airlines to fly if you are not flying private.  This 5-star airline was the first to invest in the Airbus a380, the super-luxe future of air travel.  So why are U.S. air carriers so awful?  Because we just put up with it, with little or no resistance.  It is like paying for an exotic car rental, and receiving a Ford Focus.

Air travel is expensive, yet Americans are treated as if we have just paid $2 to ride the public bus to Wal-mart each time we enter an American airport.  Well, if you cannot enjoy a private jet charter, perhaps its time to see how the other side of the world flies!

Yes, it certainly seems that Eastern and European counties enjoy air travel on an entirely different plane, if you will.   Singapore Airlines depicts what the commercial air travel should feel like for the paying customer, a comfortable and memorable experience.  It is considered 5-star, but shouldn’t all air travel?  Plus, it features a coach section and business class section.

So what is the Airbus a380?  If it were a car, it would be a luxury rental car.  It is the latest and most lavish innovation in commercial air travel, boasting a double-deck and oversized body, and the title of the largest passenger airliner in the World.  The upper deck of the a380 extends the length of the fuselage, allowing for an outstanding 5.146 square feet of floor space, a full 49% more than a Boeing 747-400.  This superjet can haul some serious ass, and it goes fast, too!  It can haul from 525-853 passengers, at speeds of Mach 0.85, or about 560 miles per hour cruising.  Imagine that next business trip from New York to Hong Kong!

Aside from the Airbus a380 aircraft, the flight crew and entrees served onboard both receive rave reviews from passengers.  What?  A polite flight crew and delectable airline cuisine?  Is this some kind of alternate universe?

Now consider the American version of commercial air travel, where rage and angst are customary, peppered with lost luggage followed up by no apology, unnecessary fees, stress, cancelled flights with no attempts to rectify the situation (great business model), overpriced airport food (monopoly, much?), rude staff and the list goes on. 

My favorite rant topic is American airport security measures.  These senseless stamps of stupidity have only served to display our embarrassing inability to defend ourselves to the rest of the world community, as we waste billions over billions in attempts to shield ourselves from water, breast milk, deodorant, tampons, bobby-pins and other obviously deadly devices. Why don’t we just place Chuck Norris at the security gates, America?  

*Check out our aircraft charter options and fleet of luxury rental cars on your way out!

Post by Imagine Lifestyles Luxury Rentals

In Chiba, Japan, the premier electronics show featured an energy efficient city of the future.  The futuristic city had a special show floor devoted entirely to it at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (Ceatec), amid the electronics, gadgets and robots.

The city of the future is a crack at selling a vision of urban life in 2020 and beyond, a “Smart City” so to speak.  The vision is of a post-fossil fuel world, utilizing alternative energies derived from the sun, wind and nuclear power, harnessed in mass quantities.   The idea is much the same as the latest hybrid automobile trends, using alternative forms of energy to decrease our dependence on non-renewable resources and be more environmentally friendly in the process.  So what is the vision for the future of Japan’s cities?

The power harnessed from various natural sources is distributed to buildings, homes and even electric cars that are connected through “smart grids”, which have the capacity to monitor usage throughout the energy network.  Carbon emissions are decreased drastically, which are thought to be one of the causes of global warming.

A test city will be set up in Yokohama, just southwest of Tokyo, where the social and infrastructure of a smart city can be tried for the rest of the world to emulate.   This will be a five-year experiment, and is titled “Yokohama Smart City Project”.  Seven Japanese companies are participating in the smart city experiment, including Nissan Motor Co., Panasonic Corp., Toshiba Corp., Tokyo Electric Power Co., Tokyo Gas Co., Meidensha Corp., and Accenture’s Japan unit.   The end result hoped for is a social model to sell to the rest of the world.
 
But Japan is not the only country creating smart grids; Australia has invested around $100 million into developing a commercial-scale smart grid in Newcastle.   South Korea is also going green, embarking on a smart city project on Jeju Island and aims to slice national energy consumption 3 percent by 2030.  China is also jumping on the green wagon, investing a cool $7.3 billion toward the technologies.

Toyota will launch its own home smart grid system called the Toyota Smart Center in Japan while simultaneously releasing its plug-in hybrid cars in 2012.
 

For more on hybrid cars and green luxury, follow links.  Don't miss our fleet of luxury rental cars, including Hybrid SUV rentals.
 

Post by Imagine Lifestyles Luxury Rentals
 

When I first glimpsed this photo online, I felt the thrill that small children feel when they get a new idea that they shouldn’t, which must have been how the designer felt when he came up with it! This is so crazy, so innovative, and so logical that it may actually work to solve China’s overpopulation crisis.  What is it?  Glad you asked.

Meet the ‘3D Express Coach’, and while I cannot say that the branding efforts are impressive, the idea certainly is!  It is a bus that just runs over cars on the streets.  The 3D Express Coach is like a train, only without the additional space wasted on tracks.  It runs on svelte tracks that are positioned as part of the road, like guardrails.  It is a hoverbus!  Imagine the commute times slashed by avoiding traffic issues!  No one with any brains would drive in the city again, leading to not only a more functional city, but also a greener one!  Oh the possibilities.

From airline attendant to underdog superhero, and seemingly overnight, Steven Slater has certainly made his point.  What he likely didn’t realize was the multitude of other issues that would be brought to the surface in the mix.  So what is up with commercial air travel?

To recap, Steven Slater was a JetBlue flight attendant and self-professed “Bag Nazi”.  Slater made a dramatic exit, and headlines, quitting his position by grabbing two beers and sliding down an emergency exit slide following an altercation with an unruly passenger.   (see photos at right, nice sleeves officer...)

The Terrafugia Transition is the closest thing to a flying car that has been created to date.  There is no end to the awesomeness of this idea, a vehicle that is equal parts plane and you know, car.  Seriously.

Terrafugia is a startup firm, and they have been developing and tweaking the Transition (fitting name) since 2006.  This startup was founded by a group of MIT engineers who seem to have an affinity for the aerial.  Basically, Transition is a light, single-engine plane capable of folding its wings, with a substantial four-wheeled undercarriage allowing it to be a car.  One word:  Beast.

The name Gulfstream certainly stands out among private jet and aircraft manufacturers, and the Gulfstream G550 is among their best models.  So let’s discuss what comes with the $59.9 million dollars buyers will shell out to own one.

The G550 Gulfstream features an oversized cabin, and is a long-range business jet charter that has been receiving its fair share of attention from its inception.  It accomplished this by flying non-stop from Seoul, South Korea to Orlando Florida just two weeks after it entered service, scaling the 7,301 nautical miles in just 14.5 hours.  This feat snagged the G550 a city pair record, and it established 40 more during its first 5 years of service (it has been in service since 2003).

You did not misread the headline, I did say “Restaurant” and “Toilet” in the same sentence.  This is a luxury concept restaurant that serves up edible excrement, that is, dinner served up in a decidedly dumpy way!

Diners at the Modern Toilet are seated on acrylic toilets, with the lid down of course.  The toilet seats are stenciled with images of seashells, roses or Renaissance paintings, to add a touch of class.

This week Imagine Lifestyles is highlighting our Cessna Citation CJ1, a private jet charter falling into the lightweight jet category.  This is an ideal private aircraft charter for smaller groups, going shorter distances.

Labeled as the “aircraft of choice” for short-range business and corporate jet charters, the CJ1 Citation charter delivers the ultimate in luxury while simultaneously providing seamless and stress-free trips. 

This private luxury air charter is ideal for short business trips, small family vacations and a variety of other needs.  This luxury jet seats five to seven passengers comfortably, and was designed and engineered with the passenger in mind, to deliver and exceed expectations.