It was supposed to be the future too, right? When everyone has flying cars you'll still have DWI, only it will involve landing and taking off with your flying car from the local bar.
I haven't seen actual numbers, but it does seem like there would be many fewer people who know how to fly small aircraft than in the past, since in WWII, Korea, and to some extent Vietnam there were a lot of pilots, but now it's a very specialized and less common role.
2: at present, according to the FAA, there are about 584,000 active civilian pilots (including 128,000 student pilots) in the US, which is more than I thought. 157,000 are airline pilots, which is way more than I thought. That's about the same as ten years ago. In 1980 there were 827,000, which seems to have been a peak - back in the 50s there were only 300,000 or so.
So I surmise that what has happened here is population growth, economic growth (flying a plane is now affordable for more people than it was), and, importantly, currency requirements (you need to keep flying every year to keep your licence; if you flew P-51s in the Big One and haven't flown since, you're not a pilot any more).
And further to 4: there are way more airlines and more passengers around now than there used to be, and airlines need pilots.
ACTUALLY, THE PASSENGERS NEED PILOTS.
I suspect the specific case is also a lot to do with realising "Shit, I pulled some stupid crap when I was young and immortal WAIT WHAT??"
it does seem like there would be many fewer people who know how to fly small aircraft than in the past, since in WWII, Korea, and to some extent Vietnam there were a lot of pilots, but now it's a very specialized and less common role.
It's an entirely different kind of flying altogether.
It's an entirely different kind of flying.
It's an entirely different kind of flying.
Crap, I came in late.
But you can still joke, "... and my arms are tired" for either form of flying, right?
SOME OF US DON'T EVEN HAVE ARMS TO GET TIRED WITH
I keep telling people that, at the dawn of the air age, architects and Haussmann-a-bes were convinced that airports would be located in cities where train stations were: centrally and surrounded by city streets and buildings.
SOME HAVE MORE VISION THAN OTHERS.
you need to keep flying every year to keep your licence; if you flew P-51s in the Big One and haven't flown since, you're not a pilot any more
I haven't flown a plane in 15 years, but I think my private pilot's license is still good. What has lapsed is my medical checkup. But I'm under the impression that I could get a checkup, and go fly a Cessna next week.
Probably not a good idea, though. I think I could fly a plane again, but I don't really remember how to land.
Haussmann-a-bes were convinced that airports would be located in cities where train stations were: centrally and surrounded by city streets and buildings.
Being in the middle of the city is why Washington National Airport is the best airport.
Also San Diego's, which is just barely not downtown.
[I]f you flew P-51s in the Big One, I salute you because the lingering remains of Ye Olde Nazi-Punching America grow more precious daily.
15: that might be a difference between the UK and the US. In the UK you need to fly a certain number of hours a year to keep current, I am pretty sure.
19: Looks like the UK has less than 1/15th the general aviation fatalities as the US does. Maybe that's part of the reason.
Looks like the UK has less than 1/15th the general aviation fatalities as the US does. Maybe that's part of the reason.
I think it's because the Blitz weeded out the poorer pilots.
13: I don't know about that; London had early aerodromes at Hendon and Croydon, which are both pretty suburban even now and way more so in 1920.
I feel like I should have something significant to add to this thread, given the importance of aviation in Alaska and the resulting number of pilots, but I don't really.
But that won't stop me from commenting anyway!
The comparison is laughable. Landing on frozen lakes is so easy even opiate-addicted Nazis can do it.
18: and indeed Britain. P-51 was originally built for the RAF; they went to North American in the US in 1940 and said please build us more (I think) Curtiss P-40s and Dutch Kindleberger said no, you don't want those, they're crap, I'll design you a better one, and ninety-three days later he had, starting from a blank sheet of paper, designed, built and test-flown the first P-51, and the RAF took it and said nice! we'll take lots! and then came back a bit later and said but could you build it with a Rolls-Royce Meteor engine so it can actually fight rather than this Allison lawnmower two-stroke POS you gave it? and the result was a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
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The final gong has rung, there must be NMM to Chuck Barris.
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28 is of course correct. Don't know why I wrote that. Tanks on the brain clearly.
20: We do a lot less GA than the US, full stop. We don't have that US thing where you look down from the plane on take-off and see another international airport 15 miles from the one you just left.
But I think the big difference is probably the weather; a lot of people who want to get a licence train somewhere where taking off and going straight on instruments until you break out on the ILS at your destination isn't a way of life, such as Florida or California or Spain or South Africa or Australia. Not least because concentrated training is a thing and waiting days between breaks in the overcast is the antithesis of that.
I mean, is there any sensible explanation for the existence of San Jose-Norman Mineta International Airport except that Norman Mineta got San Jose an airport and this feat got him a job in GWB's cabinet?
32: Santa Clara County has 1.9 million people. I don't think it's strange to have a big airport for that part of the Bay, especially given how much drive times and water divide the region.