Key Facts
The Client
Millennium Jet, Inc., an aerospace start-up company building vertical take-off and landing aircraft including SoloTrek and DuoTrek.
The Results
Placed hundreds of articles in publications including the Associated Press, The San Jose Mercury News, The San Francisco Chronicle, Design News and Machine Design, as well as securing broadcast coverage on all five Bay area television news programs, the CBS Evening News, CNN, and the Discovery Channel
Outcome
Millions of visits to website; $5 million in funding awarded by DARPA; and a working partnership with NASA-Ames to collaborate and use NASA facilities for SoloTrek testing
Background
I began working with Millennium Jet in March 1999 as part of a ‘virtual team’ on the worldwide media launch of SoloTrek, a vertical take-off and landing aircraft prototype. The initial launch to business and trade press resulted in more than 60 media placements internationally, including stories in publications such as BusinessWeek, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, The London Sunday Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Jose Mercury News. TV coverage included Channel 5 KPIX in San Francisco and The Discovery Channel in Canada.
After the initial media launch of SoloTrek, I continued to work with the client providing strategy, counsel, writing and media relations support. The coverage achieved has resulted in millions of visits to the web site and interest from government agencies including DARPA and NASA, as well as attention from major media outlets around the world. SoloTrek has been covered by hundreds of newspapers and magazines and broadcast outlets including CNN, the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, all five Bay Area television news programs, the Discovery Channel, Australian Channel 9, and many others.
