Behind The Yoke

IBM has an insightful feature encouraging airlines to adopt new business models so that the aviation industry can survive in these tough times.

“Airlines and airports face escalating costs, revenue growth constraints and an increasingly dissatisfied customer base. By offering passengers a highly differentiated experience and simultaneously enhancing its operational efficiency, the aviation industry can position itself to become and remain profitable in a volatile business climate. To accomplish this, we believe the industry should adopt a new business model that combines distinctive customer services, a flexible infrastructure and greater collaboration, among partnering airlines and between airlines and airports.”

Topics discussed include: Self-service kiosks,  improved baggage handling, better security (some of this stuff actually scares me like the RFID chips…yikes), and building more intelligent airports.

On my days off of work I always try to make it up to the airport (AHN) for a couple of hours to stare at the runways. Striking up random conversations and waiting for planes to land or taxi out for take off is a great way of forgetting the stresses of the day. It takes my mind off everything except aviation. Some days are are slow some days are busy. The beauty of just sitting on the bench right outside of the terminal is the unpredictability of
what’s coming next. It could be a business jet, a wardbird, a Cessna or a military trainer. You just never know. Once I get a handheld scanner I can listen for the next approaching craft but for now I like the uncertainty.

Yesterday, I was just about to leave the airport when I saw these two aircraft on the horizon. They were two T-34c Mentors (pic above) from the Navy. Whoa…have to see these things taxi up. Two minutes later they appeared right in front of the terminal. And to think I was just about to leave. After they arrived I wanted to stay for three more hours but I was hungry. Okay…I guess I have to eat.

There’s been a lot of talk lately on the boards that there is a growing number of people concerned that GA is slowly dying. AV Gas is getting more expensive, training costs are soaring, the government is proposing more and more user fees, the number of new pilots is going down every year, etc.  And then there’s the cost of parts and maintenance, another whole side of the problem.  Basically, general aviation is getting far too expensive for the regular Joe and there’s no real solution in view.

So what do we do? Well, basic consumer economics tells us that if we manufacture more of a particular product that’s high in demand and make them more commonplace, the costs will eventually come down. Take flat screen TV’s for instance. Right when they came out they were expensive as hell, wait another five years and they’ll be $200 - $500.

I know for a fact that there is a great demand for airplanes. Everyone and their mother would want an airplane if they were as cheap to own and maintain as a car, period. But we all know this isn’t the case at all.

So in comes flying cars and personal flying machines. Mmm…how nice does that ring? We’ve all at one time have had the dream of the Jetson’s becoming a reality. Sitting in gridlock traffic sucking in the fumes listening to bad talk radio wishing that our car could only hover and avoid it all. I’m here to say that this concept is well on its way.

NASA has a program called “The Highway in the Sky” or SATS (Small Aircraft Transportation System) that is designed to let millions of people fly in their own flying vehicles where and whenever they please. “The long-term goal is to improve travel between remote communities and transportation centers in urban areas by utilizing a new generation of aircraft between the nation’s 5,400 under-utilized public-use general aviation airports. One of the most revolutionary aspects of the SATS approach is the use of a software system that will sequence aircraft into the SATS airspace in the absence of an airport controller.”  Of course there are many issues to consider but my point is that the concept is VERY real but far from being implemented. Most people aren’t even competent behind the wheel of a car let alone in an aircraft so safety is obviously the biggest issue.

Anyhow, aside from the numerous dynamics involved with making flying cars a reality, people are building them. For instance, Paul Moller makes the Skycar: The first and only feasible, personally affordable, personal vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle the world has ever seen.” Woody Norris has his AirScooter. Jay Carter uses CarterCopter technology to get in the sky. And then there’s Terrafugia, Inc. which makes “a roadable Light-Sport Aircraft that will be able to land at the airport, fold up its wings, and drive on the road.” The Cafe Foundation, made up of EAA members, were selected by NASA to host their 2008 PAV challenge. They create PAV (Personal Air Vehicles). Check out their video called “Race To The Future.” A very entertaining  perspective on how aviation may look in the near future.

We have a long way to go with all this flying car stuff but we have to start somewhere and these people above are the pioneers in the new wave of aviation. Will GA aircraft be relics someday? The EAA believes so. NASA believes so.  I tend to believe so. It’s my feeling that one day this “Highway in the Sky” will be filled with personal flying machines replacing the big jets.  This is only the beginning folks. Imagine what the airspace will be like in 25 years? We can only wait.