BY CAROL E. GILES H ave you ever tried to explain general avia- tion to someone outside of the business? The short answer is that General Aviation (GA) is flying that isn’t the military or the scheduled airlines. That’s a start, but it only says what GA is not. You could do the alphabetical roll call, that GA is air charter, aerial applica- tion (what “North by Northwest” fans know as crop dust- ing), air ambulance, balloons, business aviation, firefighting, flight instruction, personal flying, police patrols, search and rescue, sightseeing, traffic reporting, and so much more. But, by then, you’ll probably have put your audience to sleep. While General Aviation can be hard to explain, there is nothing sleepy about it. It is 24/7 and affects all aspects of our lives. Dramatic technological develop- ments are rapidly changing the face and pace of GA. With so many changes in manufacturing, materials, and both aircraft and business models, it is fitting that I wrote this article while at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture in Oshkosh. What a week it was, including the U.S. debut of a NextGen personal helicop- ter, an aircraft that weighs less than some people! 1 Every time I go to Oshkosh, I am vividly reminded that the experimental aircraft community provides the spark for so much creativity and innovation. Importantly for 1 https://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/eaa-airventure-news-and- multimedia/eaa-airventure-news/eaa-airventure-oshkosh/ 07-28-2017-next-gen-surefly-copter-makes-us-debut 70 the rest of the aviation community, time and again the experimental aircraft world has enabled quicker imple- mentation of new technology with price points much lower than those for the same technology that requires Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval. The experimental aircraft category has provided a route for GA manufacturers to take products made for experimen- tal aircraft and, where applicable, seek FAA approval for installation in standard category aircraft. I won’t be making headlines when I say that the approval process can take time; and, by the time one technology is approved, other more advanced technologies are nipping at its heels, or even overtaking it, but that is changing. Last summer, the FAA changed how it certifies small GA aircraft and implemented a performance-based philosophy regarding regulatory compliance. As FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told a large crowd at AirVenture, “Instead of telling manufacturers how to build airplanes, we’re defin- ing the safety goals we want to achieve and giving indus- try the freedom to come up with innovative solutions.” Emerging technology is the perfect place where perfor- mance-based standards can be most valuable. This new approach will reduce the time it takes to move safety- enhancing technologies for small aircraft into the market- place and will also decrease costs for the aviation industry. This shift is most welcome since the GA industry is poised for a period of unprecedented technological change, and it Aviation Business Journal | 3rd Quarter 2017
