But the funding has helped the company grow its team (13 by June), and gives it about a year-and-a-half runway to keep building its customer base.
In opening remarks at the conference, Catherine Lang, the F.A.A.'s deputy associate administrator for airports, said she worried about the prospect of "half-built runway projects and half-built terminals," as well as cuts in inspection efforts and other basic services.
The take-off started at 14 42 43 and the aircraft was airborne after having passed half the runway.
The half-hour runway show highlighted more than 70 models from around the world, who strutted their threads to songs such as "Personal Jesus" and "Route 66".
They appeared on the runway half covered, while the models were often half-undressed, with the visible bras that are having a comeback on the catwalk.
"A combat-loaded C-17, with 72 tons of cargo, could land in half of that runway," said Paul Jackson, editor of Jane's All the World's Aircraft.
Laden with 8,200kg (18,100lb) of fuel, the fragile-looking aircraft travelled a mile and a half down the runway before its wheels finally left the tarmac.
Two New York Times reporters aboard an Allahabad-bound flight operated by the domestic airline Spicejet had to wait for an hour and a half on the runway before the plane took off from the Delhi airport.
Oh, right: this is the show where many of the models strut the runway half naked (well, at times, 7/8ths naked), with faces of unnatural beauty and abs that make a mockery of the term six-pack.
IF Brazilians needed any proof that having a social conscience is in fashion here, they got it recently, when, during São Paulo Fashion Week, the supermodel Gisele Bündchen gave half her $30,000 runway fee to Zero Hunger, a program to eradicate poverty in this country.
