I saw an interesting show last week. The gentleman's arrow had staggered fletching. He claimed that you get all the benefits of shorter fletching, but none of the drawbacks.
I don't have a pic, so just imagine you are fletching an arrow, the first feather you apply 1" from the nock, the next feather you apply 2" from the nock, and the last feather you apply 3" from the nock. Gives you a staggered fletch job. The total surface area of feather is of course dependent on you fletching length but 3 3" feathers will yield a total surface area/effective length of 6" but without the drag of 3 6" feathers. If your shooting a high enough brace height probably could get 3 6" feathers on the shaft, but the whole point is to not have to.
Yup. With all those channels it takes less and less to get on TV these days.
I am not sure what his exact claim was or is. I can tell you that staggering the fletching will not provide additional arrow control. Physics simply doesn't work that way. Neither does aerodynamics. I wish he was right my fletchings would be cheaper. 3 - 6 inch fletch have roughly 18 square inches of total surface area. 3 - 3 inch fletch have roughly 9 square inches. The closer you put fletching towards the nock the more control it has on the arrow. My guess is his arrows are tuned perfectly and he has good form so the small fletch would work in any pattern he likes.
Staggered Fletching = more than 3 beers!
From what I remember its an old 3d wheelie shooter trick and proved not to do a dang thing.