RAPID DESCENT: A Greensboro rising star is waylaid by a turbulent aircraft market.

• Author: Martin, Edward

Below, Appalachian forests drift through the morning haze. Piloting an F-15 jet fighter over Afghanistan was nothing like this for Glenn Gonzales, who followed his military career with a fast rise in corporate aviation. His military aircraft included dozens of screens, dials and toggles that, among other things, could fire his ejection seat.

When Gonzalez takes control of the jet featured by his closely held company Jet It, the instrument panel looks like an SUV's. Take off requires pushing a button that says "start." Two 2,000-pound thrust turbofan engines atop the wings spin to life. Once aloft, a digital display reads 420 knots, or 480 mph.

HondaJet's $7 million, six-seat business jet, which was first delivered in 2015, has helped put Greensboro on the global aviation map. About 800 employees assemble the aircraft near Piedmont Triad International Airport. Plans call for 280 more as Honda Aircraft prepares an 11-passenger model.

Gonzales parlayed a position as a HondaJet executive into Greensboro-based Jet It, which he founded in 2018. The business sold and managed fractional ownership mostly in HondaJets, much like vacation-home time-shares.

Two years ago, Ernst & Young named him Southeast entrepreneur of the year. In 2022, Jet It ranked 11th nationally in flight hours, jumping 10 places in one year. It operated more than two-dozen planes and employed several dozen people. Gonzales, 46, regularly appeared on the covers of business publications, including this one in February 2023.

"I wouldn't quite call him a superstar," says a Greensboro executive who lunched with him as recently as July. "But he was on his way."

In May, Jet It crashed, leaving its fractional owners nationwide scrambling to recoup their investments. The company had raised $16 million last year from New York investor Michael Loeb and the Louisville, Kentucky private equity firm Blue Sky, according to Flying magazine.

Gonzales' love affair with Honda spiraled into bitter recriminations and a lawsuit, which was settled earlier this year.

Attempts to contact Gonzales were unsuccessful. The company is in a "holding pattern" and its lawyers are telling officials to not comment, says Akir Khan, Jet It's chief of staff. As of mid-August, it had not sought to reorganize in federal bankruptcy court.

Interviews with more than a dozen sources suggest Jet It grew too fast by undercutting competitors' pricing and misinterpreting a temporary spike in its industry as permanent good...