There are a couple of threads about airline bankruptcies (one in GW and another in MPSIMS). What we need is more private flying.
Remember the old ‘Cities of the Future’ depicted in films in the 1920s and 1930s? Airplanes clogged the flyways between buildings with commuters. (Never mind them hovering for traffic lights! :rolleyes: ) The Jetsons had ‘flying cars’. The Moller SkyCar has been ‘a couple years away from certification’ for like 20 years now.
There are lots of reasons not to have a lot of people flying. Take the SkyCar. Entirely too expensive. Or just look at our freeways and city streets and count the number of collisions every day. If everyone flew, the carnage would be glorious!
On the other hand, there are reasons for more private flying. I’ve read many articles over the years comparing private flying to flying on the airlines. In each case I remember the General Aviation aircraft made it to its destination quicker than an airline on relatively short trips*. (ISTR that GA was better for up to 400 miles.) No driving to a large, busy airport. No getting there up to two hours early for check-in. No taking off of shoes at the security checkpoint. No set schedule.
But flying is expensive. Most of our fleet is over 30 years old. But if more people wanted to fly themselves from place to place, demand for light aircraft will increase. Increased demand will mean more production. Back in the late-1970s there were 15,000 light aircraft being made every year. I don’t know the current numbers, but I’ll bet we’re only making 20% to 25% of that figure now. More new airplanes will bring down the price of used airplanes as people move up. Used airplanes will never be as cheap as they were ‘back in the day’, but I think they’ll become somewhat more reasonable. In any case, there would likely be more aircraft available for rental.
And it would be good for the economy. People have to build the new airplanes. People have to teach people to fly them. There have to be schools to employ the instructors. Construction companies will need to be hired for airport improvements. Local economies have been shown to benefit from active GA airports. Businesses will save time over flying commercially. ATC infrastructures will need to be improved, which will result in more jobs for the people who do that. We may actually get NASA’s ‘highway in the sky’ system, which may improve safety.
Johnny did you see my thread about getting my license down here in Phoenix? I posted a pic of a very cool aircraft a seawind - and mentioned that I start in October. After moving in next to an ex-military turned commercial pilot I have gained a whole new respect for pilots and genral aviation.
The FAA recently approved a new Sport Pilot’s license to make it easy for people that just want to fly 2 seat aircraft and streamlines the whole process. You don’t even need a medical exam, just a driver’s license. That is huge for people that used to be in flying and were forced out or for new people that want the process to be simplified and have less requirements. Aircraft manufacturers are rolling out new light sport aircraft that meet the new requirements like crazy. Maybe that will help some.
Don’t forget about the new class of aircraft called Very Light Jets. None of them are certified, but once they are and they move into production, we’ll see the growth of a new flight segment–the “air taxi”. It’ll be awesome.
I have a friend who’s pretty much a certifiable train nut. He has no fear of flying (and indeed travels overseas a fair amount) but will happily take Amtrak in preference to any other means of travel. He dosen’t require that it be quicker or cheaper.
And he has some amazing stories to tell about delays, problems, breakdowns, closed stations, trains that never appear, etc. He says that Amtrak regularly tries the patience (and indeed sanity) of even a devoted train nut.
Re: the linked aviation article… Honda is making a plane? Interesting!
Whatever happened to that company that was making a very small supersonic jet? I heard a rumour that their design did not work. Pity, if true; I was hoping for worldwide pizza delivery, among other things.
BTW, I had one of the scooters featured in the ad. Honda Passport, I think it was called.
AOPA is a bit Eastern-centric at times. While there is train service along the eastern seaboard, try getting from Lancaster, CA to Las Vegas. Nice little two-hour flight by Cessna. A trip to Burbank for a commercial flight. (Unless PMD Regional is up and running.)
That may have been the BD-10. The BD-10 was a nice idea, but some test pilots were killed. Seems there was a problem with flutter.
I’d like to see it, but I’m skeptical it will happen. For the forseeable future, the skill required of a pilot (and thus the time and cost of acceptable training) will be beyond the reach of all but a motivated few that are “bitten by the bug”. The average person tends to believe that flying is difficult and dangerous. This view is often exaggerated, but there’s enough truth in it to ensure that even among those who start training, only a minority complete it. Of those, a substantial number don’t fly much after they get their license.
And then there’s cost. The price of even a basic new airplane is close to shocking these days - $200,000 is easy to spend on a rather slow, old-technology, not-very-efficient single-engine plane. Maintenance and operation costs are in line with this (avgas at $4/gal doesn’t help here). Taking all costs into account, that $200,000 airplane will probably cost $150+/hour to operate.
Interesting story about the BD-5J. My dad was building a BD-5A (big engine, short wings). A friend of his said he had access to a small turbojet engine and asked if my dad would like to trade a half-interest in the BD-5 for the engine to put into it. Dad called Jim Bede, who said absolutely, unequivocally, positively a jet engine would not work in the BD-5. A year later he brought out the BD-5J. :dubious:
I think that was the one I half-remembered. I remember reading about it and thinking, “air courier!”. And then wondering whether rich people in less stable parts of the world would start buying it to build their own private air forces…
