Two decades on the buyer's side of the hangar.
Ollie Bigler founded Smarter Aircraft to give principals an unconflicted seat at the table — replacing brokerage incentives with disciplined analysis, transparent numbers, and ownership structures engineered around the buyer.
"I took responsibility when others would have walked away. I learned the market from the wreckage, not from the brochure."
Track record, in figures.
Two decades of buyer-side aviation experience, distilled into a single fiduciary practice with zero brokerage incentives.
From the wreckage.
Why Ollie could no longer participate in private aviation as it was — and what he built instead.
Ollie built and sold multiple tech companies before a friend pulled him into a charter and management venture. He brought five HNW peers and their aircraft. Six months later it went bankrupt — each owner ~$200K deep after their bills funded payroll.
Ollie worked unpaid for ~18 months getting every owner repaid and every aircraft re-homed. The process exposed a structurally broken industry: hidden losses, weak accountability, and misaligned incentives buyers cannot audit on their own.
After reviewing ~450 charter and management companies, one forensic audit in Nevada traced ~$7M in losses for a single owner — stripped through how the aircraft was sold and operated. That audit confirmed the mission.
Protect the buyer. Reform the standard.
Protect the buyer.
Protect high-net-worth buyers from fraud, incompetence, and expensive guesswork — through fiduciary-level care, investment-grade analysis, tax-aware structuring, and the right operator standards.
Reform the standard.
Become the most trusted buyer-side authority in U.S. private aviation — making integrity, education, and disciplined ownership economics the new standard in a historically predatory category.
High-net-worth — but never indifferent to waste.
The sweet spot is the careful founder, investor, or operator after a liquidity event — affluent enough to own, disciplined enough to refuse to be naive about it.
- Sold a company
- Had a major liquidity event
- Want tax-aware structured ownership
- Can afford a jet, refuse to be naive about it
- $2–3M / year quietly lost
- Category too opaque to trust
- Mixed advisor guidance
- Can't tell incompetence from fraud
- Safe and informed
- Tax-aware and financially defensible
- Aligned with lifestyle and long-term plan
- Intelligent — never dazzled
“Most buyers lose money before they ever take off. We replace broker incentives with structured analysis, transparent numbers, and ownership models engineered for the buyer — not the seller.”
Four pillars
of smarter
ownership.
Each engagement is sequenced — from mission analysis through post-close oversight — so every decision is grounded in numbers and aligned with your fiduciary interest.
Acquisition Strategy
Mission profiling, model selection, market sourcing, and negotiation — engineered around your actual usage, not a broker's inventory.
Operator Due Diligence
Independent review of management companies, charter operators, and maintenance histories. The questions sellers never want asked.
Financial Analysis
Total cost of ownership modeling, residual value forecasting, and break-even analysis against charter, fractional, and jet card alternatives.
Tax-Structured Ownership
Coordination with your CPA and counsel on entity structure, bonus depreciation, Part 91 vs. 135 strategy, and state sales/use exposure.
Risk, quantified.
A representative cost-of-ownership comparison across three common scenarios for a mid-size jet flying 250 hours annually.
| Scenario | Annual Cost | Cost / Hour | 5-Yr Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broker-led acquisition | $3.2M | $12,800 | +18% |
| Fractional program | $2.9M | $11,600 | +7% |
| Smarter Aircraft model | $2.4M | $9,600 | Baseline |
- Annual
- $3.2M
- Per Hour
- $12,800
- 5-Yr Var.
- +18%
- Annual
- $2.9M
- Per Hour
- $11,600
- 5-Yr Var.
- +7%
- Annual
- $2.4M
- Per Hour
- $9,600
- 5-Yr Var.
- Baseline
Indicative figures. Every engagement produces a fully bespoke ownership model.
Credentialed across the industry.
Smarter Aircraft is an active member of the leading aviation associations, data providers and marketplaces — giving our clients independent access to the full picture of the pre-owned market.
