Darnell Martens, president and CEO of Vitesse, has devoted his career to business aviation. He began his career with Booz, Allen & Hamilton and at age 22 left the position of senior consultant to cofound American Helicopters, the first of several business aviation companies. American Helicopters was acquired by Richard Santulli and renamed Executive Jet Management, and Martens was a member of the founding management team that created NetJets. Later he was instrumental in the development of Aviation Research Group/U.S. (ARG/US), coauthored the business plan for the creation of the Raytheon Travel Air fractional aircraft ownership program, and coauthored the business plan for Flight Options.
Vitesse, located in the Indianapolis area, is the operations base for Vitesse FlightPartners, a company that offers “strategic jet partnerships” that combine elements of whole airplane ownership with those of fractional ownership.
According to Martens, the company operates Hawker 800s and 850s and is adding an average of one Hawker per quarter to its operation. Its maintenance facility is dedicated to the fleet and doesn’t provide third-party maintenance.
More In Maintenance and Modifications
