A Matter Of Public perception
By AOPA President Phil Boyer
Most of us in aviation have become familiar with the
NASA-FAA-Industry partnership called SATS, the Small Aircraft
Transportation System. Looking ahead to 2025 the stated purpose of
this endeavor is to revolutionize transportation: "American
citizens will enjoy an improved quality of life, and communities
and the private sector will reap significant economic
benefits."
The objective is to encourage new technologies that will allow
small aircraft to transport passengers from the 5,400 general
aviation public-use airports, versus being tied to the 29 big city
airports that capture 75 percent of today's airline passengers. A
little-known fact is that 98 percent of the US population lives
within 20 miles of a "community airport." One of these, the GA
airport in Danville, Virginia, was host in early June to a SATS
event to demonstrate the technologies designed to make small
aircraft and GA airports more accessible to more people. Among the
dignitaries attending were FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and
newly named NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, AOPA 965891 and a
Grumman Tiger owner.
As far as the technology of SATS is concerned, your association
has worked with all of the agencies and manufacturers responsible
for the high-tech products and systems that give the SATS program
its basic foundation. To my knowledge we are the only aviation
membership organization that devotes a full-time person to
"advanced technologies."
However, there is a key ingredient missing in the Small Aircraft
Transportation System, which I pointed out when it was my turn to
speak at the event. To me, it is an extremely important one,
perhaps superseding all the technology we are working so hard to
perfect.
The problem involves the general
public's fairly negative feelings about small aircraft --those
"little airplanes." In the title of the forum, organizers used two
words that outside of the aviation world have a negative
connotation -- "small aircraft." One has to wonder if we were
preaching to the choir at this event. The huge task ahead of all
involved is to guarantee that if we build SATS, they will come. The
media certainly haven't helped; they've beaten up our small
airplane community severely and with great injury since the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
This is a general public that thinks of a Beechcraft 1900
commuter turboprop as a "little airplane." How squeamish will they
be with the sort of small aircraft displayed at the SATS event? Can
the general public accept what we in general aviation take for
granted — the single-engine propeller airplane? How many of
you have offered an airplane ride to a friend, only to have them
turn you down with a response like, "You're not going to get me
into one of those little things." Or perhaps you have heard the
words, "You mean it only has a single engine?" Or better yet,
"Where's my parachute?" At AOPA events the number-one concern I
hear among those who are pilots is, "How can I get my wife to fly
with me?" Often when one's partner doesn't want to fly in a small
airplane, they will not allow the children to share the joy of a
spouse's achievement of being a pilot.
This negative public perception also is perpetuating a decline
in the pilot population. In the last 20 years FAA statistics show a
20-percent drop in active pilots. As fewer and fewer seek the left
seat as a career, or for personal and business purposes, will we
have the qualified pilots to manage the advanced flight systems of
aircraft in the future?
And, ask yourself this question, where are all these small
airplanes going to land? We've lost more than 1,000 public-use
airports in the last 25 years -- down from 6,500 to about 5,400
today. If we consider both public and private-use fields, that's
about one a week. AOPA -- with compliments to the FAA -- has in
recent years saved scores of airports from the wrecking ball. The
threat is always there and, like land values, it's mounting every
day. That's because this is a general public that also looks at
local airports with great skepticism.
If SATS is to succeed on a national
scale as planned, the industry needs to wake up to the fact that
passengers, pilots, and landing facilities for small aircraft could
all be in short supply. Everyone has a lot of work to do to educate
the general public about general aviation, and I would maintain
that since 9/11 we are actually losing, not gaining, ground because
of the paranoia about aviation. That's why AOPA established and
continues to give media support through the General Aviation
Serving America web site.
This will be a long and difficult journey -- much more difficult
than the technology advancements that make up the wonderful SATS
program. Rest assured that while I challenged all in attendance at
the Danville event to invest in the critical aspect of the "people"
perception, I also pledged that your association will spend
considerable time and resources on this very issue. We have to! It
is vital if small airplanes, their pilots, and the community
airports they now use (and SATS hopes to use in the future) are to
survive.