By the time Lieutenant Colonel Michael Brill touched down after a combat mission over Iraq earlier today, he had broken his own world record for the most hours spent flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Brill, a 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron pilot, has logged more than 6,000 hours in the F-16.

Veteran Pilot Vern Raburn has a plan to save us from the nightmare that is modern air travel—the lines, the endless delays, the crowded cabins. His company, Eclipse Aviation in Albuquerque, is manufacturing the most inexpensive business jet ever: a six-seat bird called the Eclipse 500. Hailed as the nation’s first real air taxi, one that could shuttle customers between America’s 5,400 small (read: uncrowded) airports, the jet costs just $1.5 million.