Adventures In Music and Flight: Interview with Jeremy Constant

by Lane Wallace on March 3, 2010

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Jeremy ConstantA few weeks ago, I was introduced to a man named Jeremy Constant, who’d just made the first flight on an experimental airplane he’d built himself. “You know, he’s also the first violinist of the San Francisco symphony,” a man sitting next to me said, as the builder/pilot walked away.

It took a moment for that one to sink in. And even then, I didn’t believe it until I checked with Jeremy himself. What on earth, I wondered, would the first violinist of the San Francisco symphony be doing in a world so distant from the sophistication of Davies Symphony Hall?

In part, my disbelief was the result of a visceral understanding of the work and time involved. Building your own airplane, like building your own house, boat, business, or any other creative and painstaking pursuit, is an impressive achievement. So is being talented and dedicated enough to become the first violinist (actually, assistant concertmaster, Jeremy corrected me later) of one of the leading symphony orchestras in the world.

But accomplishing both of those feats, given how much passion, dedication, time and effort each one of them requires, is kind of amazing. Aviation and music are also very different worlds. It’s not like being a carpenter and building furniture in your spare time. How does someone from such an intense and high center of the music world find himself not only learning to be a pilot, but building his own airplane, as well?

Is there some link that’s not obvious between the worlds? Is there some drive that leads to both ends? Does one passion feed the other, or require the other for balance? Or are there simply those people who are attracted to passionate pursuits, no matter how separate those pursuits might be? 

In search of answers to those questions, I tracked Jeremy down, and we spent three delightful hours talking about music, flight, passion, and how to find balance and fulfillment in a life path. I think it’s well worth taking a half hour to enjoy the excerpts of the interview I’ve included here.

A few of the many intriguing points Jeremy makes: [click to continue…]

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Where Does Endurance Come From?

by Lane Wallace on February 23, 2010

Being an entrepreneur, or trailblazer of any kind, requires—above all else—a relentless kind of persistence. New ventures almost always take a lot longer than anyone imagines they will, and the road to any kind of change—changing a career, changing the world, creating a new business, or exploring uncharted territory of any kind-will always include some really rough patches.

Different people have different thresholds for hanging in there against the odds, of course. Certainly, the greater your passion for a pursuit, the longer you’re likely to persevere. But a few days ago, I spent eight hours talking to a man who possesses more tenacity than almost any inventor or entrepreneur I’ve ever met. Some people, looking at his situation from the outside, might deem him crazy, or obsessed. But I came out of my conversation with him with the impression that his task was far more noble than crazy. And that the rest of us could learn something—I’m not even sure exactly what, but something of value—from his example.

William Miller was finishing up a Masters’ degree at Princeton University Seminary when he met a guy who was trying to raise money to build an airship capable of carrying cargo into remote areas for missionary work. Miller invested some funds in the company, ended up on the Board of Directors, and then, when the company ran into trouble, ended up as its President. That was in the mid-1960s. Over the next few years, Miller got the company out of trouble, and actually oversaw the development and manned test flight of a prototype hybrid airship—a story popularized by the writer John McPhee in three New Yorker articles and a book called The Deltoid Pumpkinseed. (The title of the book came from the shape of the hybrid—a deltoid (triangle) lifting body shape that was designed to be filled with helium for extra lift.)

That was 1971. Unfortunately, no contracts or funds could be found to develop the vehicle from the experimental stage. So, one would think, the company must have folded soon afterwards. But not so. In fact, the Aereon corporation is still in existence today. [click to continue…]

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