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Despite its importance as a user of public airport and navigational facilities, there has been very little study of the determinants of the demand for general aviation. This paper first presents a method for measuring the quantity and price of general aviation services. Then estimates of the price and income elasticity of demand for general aviation services are developed, and the implications of these estimates are discussed.

(1972). Public Policy Toward General Aviation. Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 6, No. 2-3, pp. 169-172.

The market and design studies that led to the PT6 engine are briefly reviewed, followed by a summary of the major development milestones leading to civil certification. The future growth of the engine is touched upon. The attractive operational characteristics of propeller turbines in general and the PT6 in particular are described including low temperature operation, life, power to weight ratio, pay load/range, and direct operating cost. Aspects of engine installation peculiar to propeller turbines are reviewed and the ease of installation afforded by the PT6 configuration is described. It is concluded that propeller turbines in the lower power classes will find increasing application in the general aviation field.

The expansion of air traffic in the United States continues at a forceful rate and shows no signs of decelleration. The Federal Aviation Agency (F.A.A.) traffic control statistics of Fig. 1 show total yearly operations and their relative growth. The graphs distinguish between the three major airspace users, i.e. the scheduled air carriers, the military activity at F.A.A. controlled airfields, and general aviation. The term ‘general aviation’ combines all non-military and non-scheduled airline operators, such as business fliers and private individuals who operate their own airplanes. In addition to the total trend the most significant aspect to note is the high percentage of general aviation activity and its explosive growth rate.

A favourite device of lecturers is to take a key word in the title of their speech and quote its definition from the pages of Webster's dictionary. Even though this may be mildly insulting to the audience—especially if the word being defined is something simple like “aviation”—it immediately gets the listeners onto the same track with the speaker. If nothing else, it proves the speaker at least knows how to spellthe key word in his speech and establishes his credentials as an expert in the field being discussed.I would like to show you how informed I am by starting with a Webster's dictionary definition of “general aviation”, the key element in my speech title. Unfortunately, I cannot find it in my dictionary, and I doubt if you can find it in your Oxford dictionary. In the eyes of the lexicographers, “general aviation” simply does not exist. But you and I know it doesexist, and I would still like to start with a definition of it.

Air transportation beyond 1970, discussing general aviation, short haul systems, STOL, helicopter, V/STOL, subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic aircraft

A semi‐empirical relationship is derived for the structural weight of wings, applicable to a wide range of subsonic aircraft. The method is based on a generalized expression for the material required to resist the root bending moment due to wing lift in a specified flight condition. Appropriate factors make the result applicable to cantilever and braced wings, for passenger and general aviation aircraft and for freighters. An assessment of the accuracy, based on actual wing weights of 46 aircraft, indicates that a standard deviation of 9·64 per cent is achieved. The weight formula presented allows for the effects of variations in the main wing dimensions and operational limits of the airplane and is therefore suited to parametric design studies.

This lecture is devoted to small gas turbines defined as those in the power range up to around 3000 shp and 4000 lb thrust, ie engines for general aviation, corporate and executive aircraft and limited trainer applications and helicopters. I do not propose to deal with APUs as these were the subject of the excellent paper given by C. H. Paul in a recent Halford Lecture.I intend, as you may have gathered from the title, to treat this subject more in a total business context rather than as a strictly technical lecture. Recognising both the strong technical traditions of the Society and the man, Major Halford, whose memory we honour, I shall, however, take some time to deal with selected technical aspects of the subject.

the importance of the basic magnetic compass to the navigator of general aviation aircraft is discussed. An explanation is given for the various components of magnetic forces which cause deviation. It is suggested that a three-component corrector system be used in such compasses, and that spherical compass bowls be employed.

General aviation is faced with the problem of traffic congestion. The present navigational methods are based on the use of VOR/DME/TACAN ground facilities resulting in routes directly to and from the ground stations. Toward relieving the problem, a logical method is the utilization of airspace or corridors removed from and essentially parallel to the VOR/DME ground facilities. These corridors would be defined and maintained relative to the VOR/DME ground structure. The method described is termed Area Navigation. Systems that satisfy the requirements of R-NAV typically navigate relative to way points within the corridor. The intent of this paper is to show why and how Doppler navigation equipment is suited to the requirements of R-NAV. The discussion points out the advantages of self-contained Doppler navigation systems such as versatility of routes, continuous velocity vector data for controlled arrival time, and accuracy with little or no need to update. A description is given of an R-NAV system comprised of a particular Doppler velocity sensor with optional navigational computer sets. The presentation of specific equipment relates real, operational hardware to the area navigation problem.

The characteristics of peak hour traffic are discussed, and a concept that might substantially increase the potential service capability of existing major urban general aviation airports is described. Peak hour traffic demand may be modified by allocating airport use by either week or time of day. If some of the touch and go operations which account for a high proportion of peak hour traffic could be diverted to other facilities during these hours, congestion would be reduced, and make available sizeable amounts of capacity for itinerant operations. The results of diverting peak hour training traffic to outlying airports is discussed with special reference to Buchanan-Field, Concord, California.

Little work has been done to determine the importance of general aviation in the industrial location decision. To help supply needed information, the authors conducted a national survey. Their findings and the findings obtained by the State of Missouri are not particularly favorable to the industrial airpark concept. Only a handful of the replying corporations indicated that they consider general aviation important in the location decision. The authors conclude that the new imaginative concept of an airpark may not be attractive to business until proven workable. Such validation must, of course, lie in the successful operation of the first airpark, perhaps a “bonanza for an iconoclastic entrepreneur.”

The Division of National Mapping, Department of Minerals and Energy produces Visual Terminal Charts at 1 : 250,000 scale for the Department of Civil Aviation. These charts were designed jointly by the two Departments to meet the needs of general aviation pilots using the airspace above busy airports.

It's a pleasure to be here today and to take part in this panel discussion on the needs and requirements for navigation by the general aviation pilot. In the Federal Aviation Agency we have been conducting a program called Project Little Guy (see Fig. 1) which is being carried out by the General Avaition Cockit Division of the Aircraft Development Service. The object of Project Little Guy is to promote industry development of simpler, easier-to-fly cockpit environments for the general aviation pilot, whether he is a business man pilot or flys for pleasure. He does not have the capability or the proficiency of the full-time professional pilot as characterized by the pilots flying air transport aircraft and corporate aircraft.

NASA is embarked upon research and development tasks aimed at providing the general aviation industry with a reliable crashworthy airframe design technology. The goals of the NASA program are: reliable analytical techniques for predicting the nonlinear behavior of structures; significant design improvements of airframes; and simulated full-scale crash test data. The analytical tools will include both simplified procedures for estimating energy absorption characteristics and more complex computer programs for analysis of general airframe structures under crash loading conditions. The analytical techniques being developed both in-house and under contract are described, and a comparison of some analytical predictions with experimental results is shown.

An assessment is made of recent repeated loads data from short-haul jet transports and several general aviation airplanes. The jet transport data indicate that except for check flight maneuvers the load histories are essentially independent of operator and airplane type. General aviation data show a large amount of scatter in the repeated load history. The use and geographical location of operations may be the primary means of specifying the repeated loads environment.

Moderator Kraght summarized the progress of commercial aviation in the past 33 years. Weather problems continue to plague the airlines, although different weather parameters now cause the greatest difficulties. Aircraft icing is not the serious problem to jet transports that it is to propeller craft. Fog and ceilings below landing minima are among the more serious problems. To a degree, we have become inde­pendent of the low clouds and fog down to a certain limit by using the navigational facilities that have been provided. Thunderstorms and associated turbulence in the terminal area as well as enroute continue to be hazardous to safe flight, although encounters with severe turbulence occur on only a few per cent of all flights.

Estimates of peak air traffic loads over air division areas were generated to aid in the design of an integrated air traffic control/air defense system. Basic data sources are Federal Aviation Agency IFR peak day measurements and the Curtis Report. This information was updated with recent traffic measurements and converted to obtain estmates of the number of instantaneous airborne aircraft during a peak hour of a peak VFR day for the years 1960, 1965, 1970, and 1975 with military, general aviation, and air carrier categories, divided into altitude strata below 15,000 feet, 15,000 to 24,000 feet, and above 24,000 feet. The hourly variation in traffic loads is presented and used to determine the number of airborne aircraft in each air division during periods of medium and low traffic activity on a peak VFR day in 1965.

During the early part of 1969, the hijacking of American air carrier aircraft to Cuba increased in a manner suggesting an exponential rate of progression for this phenomenon (Figure 1). The rate had reached an average of 2 to 3 hijackings per week in early February, 1969, when positive efforts were initiated to stop this activity.

Light aircraft spoilers to minimize landing risk, discussing spoiler/dive brake area effects on glide path angular control

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews 42 fatal light aircraft accidents on the files of the Department of Aviation Pathology. The term light aircraft has no precise definition. In the United States, it is popularly used to cover those aircraft up to 12,500 lb. in weight, and coming under the category of general aviation aircraft. In the United Kingdom, the term has been generally used to include aircraft up to 5000 lb. in weight only. The chapter describes the growth of the British light aircraft aviation between the two world wars, and also presents how the British pioneered the field in the 1920s, but lost their leadership to the Americans in the 1930s. During the Second World War, and for the following 15 years, it remained static in the United Kingdom; no new types of the British light aircraft were produced and the import of machines built in the United States was virtually impossible because of the strict import licence control.