What's Up In Our Crowded Skies

The sudden appearance of a Cessna 172 in the flight path of a Boeing 727 last week was the kind of disaster that commercial airline pilots dread, and all too many of them can describe near escapes in similar situations. Despite the statistical evidence that air travel is constantly becoming safer, America's airspace is getting more and more crowded. Last year there were 187,473 nonmilitary aircraft darkening the nation's skies, of which only 2,473, or 1.3%, were commercial airliners.

The phenomenal growth in general aviation in the U.S. has continued unabated for a decade. The category embraces everything from a $5,000 secondhand Piper Cub used for weekend joyrides to a $6.5 million, 18-seat Grumman Gulfstream executive jet crammed with the latest airborne electronics. In between are the twins, turboprops and smaller jets operated by some 2,200 air-taxi operators and 200 commuter airlines. This year alone, companies such as Cessna, Beech and Piper will deliver 18,000 aircraft worth $1.8 billion to customers around the country.

"The vast majority of new planes are going to businessmen," says Ed Stimpson, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. One reason is that the nation's corporate structure is becoming increasingly decentralized, its manufacturing plants scattered around the country. Claims Stimpson: "The company plane is seen today as a vital business tool, a real timesaving machine."

While all of this is good news to the U.S. private-aircraft industry, it is putting increasing pressure on the nation's overcrowded airports. Nowhere is this more true than in California, which now has 113,000 certified pilots. Van Nuys airport, the busiest general aviation field in the U.S., is host to an army of 13,557 pilots and an armada of 1,260 planes. It is, in fact, the third busiest airport in the country, after Chicago's O'Hare and Atlanta. By contrast, commercial airfields in the U.S. have shrunk from 660 in 1966 to 400 today, of which a mere 23 serve 70% of all commercial aircraft activity.

The small planes are inevitably involved in most of the accidents. Last year U.S. commercial airlines suffered only five fatal accidents, compared with 702 in general aviation. The difference can be explained partly by the airlines better pilot training, partly by better equipment. For an average fee of $1,500, any fit 17-year-old can sign up for 16 hours of classwork and 35 hours in the air at an FAA- approved school to obtain a private pilot's license. A commercial license requires more: between $3,500 and $4,000 and 250 hours of flight time. But it is a cosmic leap from this to an Air Transport rating of 1,500 flying hours minimum followed by specialized instruction for particular aircraft types.

U.S. aviation officials see the problem not as one of conflict between two different types of flying, but of order in the skies. Said FAA official John Leyden in Washington last week: "It's not a question of private planes against the airlines. It is more a question of controlled versus uncontrolled aircraft." After San Diego, that need for control may become a priority in the nation's crowded skies.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.