The Future of General 'Personal' Aviation | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-04.22.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.16.24

Airborne-FlightTraining-04.17.24 Airborne-AffordableFlyers-04.18.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.19.24

Join Us At 0900ET, Friday, 4/10, for the LIVE Morning Brief.
Watch It LIVE at
www.airborne-live.net

Thu, Dec 18, 2003

The Future of General 'Personal' Aviation

In a noisy newsroom at the Wright Centennial celebration, the EAA put a panel together. At Oshkosh or Sun & Fun, there would have been standing room only. Here, it's reporters. Not all of them well versed on things with wings and the issues that keep them in the air, and that, more recently, have been keeping them on the ground.

From one end of the table to the other, you had Vern Raburn, the CEO of Eclipse Aviation. Then Alan Klapmeier, the President of Cirrus Design. Steve Brown from the FAA was next. He's the VP for operations and planning. Phil Boyer, President of the AOPA was next, and sitting next to him, Congressman James Oberstar. Bob Warner, Exec VP of the EAA was to the far right.

They each had some points to make, some we've heard before. Alan Klapmeier mentioned at least twice that the term "General Aviation" needs to go. Be replaced with "Personal Aviation". He adds: "Truth is, people who own planes aren't all "fat cat rich people". The average age of the fleet is 34 years old. We have to raise public awareness". Phil Boyer adds that in the 30 years since the last walk on the moon, fully 25 percent of the GA fields in the nation have closed. Many have become shopping centers, industrial parks, or in the case of Houston, apartment complexes.

The EAA's Bob Warner "We see our mission as promoting access, protecting the right to fly, and providing for the future." He points with pride to the One millionth "Young Eagles" flight. He also pointed a verbal jab down the table a couple of seats, wondering when the FAA was going to sign off on the Sport Pilot category and Light Sport Aircraft. He said that would bring thousands of pilots and aircraft to the rolls.

Eclipse's Raburn took that moment to announce that he's planning on a supersonic, vertical take-off 6-seater, with a price point of between 50 and 60 thousand dollars. After the laughter died down, he and Klapmeier compared notes on where light aircraft prices should be. Raburn thinks his competition is the price of an airline seat. Klapmeier said that the time is long past when you will find an aircraft in every garage. One reporter asked if a $250,000 Cessna 172 could be considered an aircraft for "the average pilot". Both men said no, and AOPA's Boyer tossed in the item that there are 50,000 aircraft sales per year.

He was swinging for the fences to get GA's message out.

Little factoids like:

  • For every airline flight, there are five GA flights
  • 150 million people a year fly in private aircraft
  • There are 214,000 aircraft in the "private" fleet
  • 90% of all GA in the world is in the United States

Congressman Oberstar says that he's convinced that airline executives think that airports are for their airlines alone! Even though airports are built with public funds, they want GA out of commercial airports, and he says that would, in the long run, ruin all of aviation.

At the end of it all, ANN wanted to know how these folks came to Kitty Hawk:

  • Boyer/AOPA: With 7 people in AOPA Citation
  • Brown/FAA: With 12 hours notice, he drove from D.C.
  • Klapmeier/Cirrus: SR-22 (flew back to Chicago for Monday night)
  • Rep. Oberstar: SR-22
  • Rayburn/Eclipse: Commander 690
  • Warner/EAA: Flew commercial, through Norfolk
FMI: www.cirrusdesign.com, www.eclipseaviation.com, www.aopa.org, www.eaa.org, www.faa.gov

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (04.24.24): Runway Lead-in Light System

Runway Lead-in Light System Runway Lead-in Light System Consists of one or more series of flashing lights installed at or near ground level that provides positive visual guidance a>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.24.24)

Aero Linx: Aviation Without Borders Aviation Without Borders uses its aviation expertise, contacts and partnerships to enable support for children and their families – at hom>[...]

Aero-FAQ: Dave Juwel's Aviation Marketing Stories -- ITBOA BNITBOB

Dave Juwel's Aviation Marketing Stories ITBOA BNITBOB ... what does that mean? It's not gibberish, it's a lengthy acronym for "In The Business Of Aviation ... But Not In The Busine>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Best Seat in The House -- 'Inside' The AeroShell Aerobatic Team

From 2010 (YouTube Version): Yeah.... This IS A Really Cool Job When ANN's Nathan Cremisino took over the lead of our Aero-TV teams, he knew he was in for some extra work and a lot>[...]

Airborne Affordable Flyers 04.18.24: CarbonCub UL, Fisher, Affordable Flyer Expo

Also: Junkers A50 Heritage, Montaer Grows, Dynon-Advance Flight Systems, Vans' Latest Officially, the Carbon Cub UL and Rotax 916 iS is now in its 'market survey development phase'>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC