Avionics News February 2017 - 11

What caught my attention wasn't the business and
pricing models but rather the airline business and
pricing models used in the 1970s - you know, the
golden years of general aviation. I think the most telling
piece of the report was the price of a transcontinental
flight (New York to San Francisco) in today's dollars.
It's roughly equivalent to the price of my international
ticket to Brazil or Australia: $1,400.
According to an article by Derek Thompson in the
Feb 28, 2013, The Atlantic magazine titled "How Airline

I predict the recreational end of
general aviation to continue its
downward path to be replaced with
experimental, amateur-built and light
sport aircraft (sport planes); and
I predict the working end of GA to
continue with moderate gains.
Ticket Prices Fell 50 Percent in 30 Years (and Why
Nobody Noticed)," Thompson cited the following data
from the Airlines for America:
*	 "In 1965, no more than 20 percent of Americans
had ever flown in an airplane. By 2000, 50
percent of the country took at least one roundtrip flight a year. The average was two round-trip
tickets.
*	 The number of air passengers tripled between the
1970s and 2011.
*	 In 1974, it was illegal for an airline to charge
less than $1,442 in inflation-adjusted dollars for
a flight between New York City and Los Angeles."
So flying GA back in the 1970s made economic sense.
But what else was going on in the 1970s? Let's take a
trip back in time and look at the headlines, technology,
and transportation in the 1970s, and maybe we can
decide if we are ready for all that made general aviation
appealing.
First, to be fair, we have to compare the cost of living
from the "glory days" (1975) to today. I will use the

four decades between 1975 and 2015. A new house in
1975 was about $48,000. Adjusted for inflation, that
$48,000 in 1975 dollars comes in at about $209,000,
while the actual mean cost of housing today is closer
to $270,000. In contrast, a new Cessna 172 Skyhawk II
was selling for a little more than $20,000 or about half
the price of the median home, while today's 172 would
take the price of a median home plus a little more. Not
accounting for inflation, the real cost to purchase a
simple 4-place recreational GA aircraft has doubled in
the past four decades.
But this is OK. When we apply inflation to many of
the staples of 1975, we find many things have not kept
up with inflation: milk ($7.20 versus $3.49); eggs ($3.66
versus $2.08); and gasoline ($2.57 versus $2.38). To
keep the effective costs in line with those of the 1970s,
the next generation of recreational flyers truly must look
at the LSA and EAB options.
I found it interesting the other day when the 10th
anniversary of the iPhone was announced. Yes, it has
been an interesting decade since Steve Jobs stood on a
stage on Jan. 9, 2007, and changed our world. It is hard
to believe there was a time without the smartphone and
tablets for our flight planning, filing our flight plan or
calling for fuel.
To put GA into perspective, we must look back at
the technologies of the 1970s when most of the current
fleet of GA aircraft were produced; and also realize that
most of those aircraft were designed 20 years earlier.
Personal computing? That didn't come until 1977 with
the introduction of the Commodore PET, Apple II, and
Radio Shack's TRS-80. The VCR was introduced along
with the battle between Betamax and VHS. Who won
that one? For programmers, there was FORTRAN 66
and the introduction of Basic. And of course, it was
1975 that Microsoft was started.
Most of the cockpit of GA aircraft replicated the
automotive industry. But the aircraft has been locked in
time for the past 40 years while the automotive industry
has made exponential advances. There weren't any
electronic displays to speak of in light aircraft: RNAV
Continued on page 63
avionics news

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february

2017

11



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News February 2017

No label
Avionics News February 2017 - Intro
Avionics News February 2017 - No label
Avionics News February 2017 - Cover2
Avionics News February 2017 - 1
Avionics News February 2017 - 2
Avionics News February 2017 - 3
Avionics News February 2017 - 4
Avionics News February 2017 - 5
Avionics News February 2017 - 6
Avionics News February 2017 - 7
Avionics News February 2017 - 8
Avionics News February 2017 - 9
Avionics News February 2017 - 10
Avionics News February 2017 - 11
Avionics News February 2017 - 12
Avionics News February 2017 - 13
Avionics News February 2017 - 14
Avionics News February 2017 - 15
Avionics News February 2017 - 16
Avionics News February 2017 - 17
Avionics News February 2017 - 18
Avionics News February 2017 - 19
Avionics News February 2017 - 20
Avionics News February 2017 - 21
Avionics News February 2017 - 22
Avionics News February 2017 - 23
Avionics News February 2017 - 24
Avionics News February 2017 - 25
Avionics News February 2017 - 26
Avionics News February 2017 - 27
Avionics News February 2017 - 28
Avionics News February 2017 - 29
Avionics News February 2017 - 30
Avionics News February 2017 - 31
Avionics News February 2017 - 32
Avionics News February 2017 - 33
Avionics News February 2017 - 34
Avionics News February 2017 - 35
Avionics News February 2017 - 36
Avionics News February 2017 - 37
Avionics News February 2017 - 38
Avionics News February 2017 - 39
Avionics News February 2017 - 40
Avionics News February 2017 - 41
Avionics News February 2017 - 42
Avionics News February 2017 - 43
Avionics News February 2017 - 44
Avionics News February 2017 - 45
Avionics News February 2017 - 46
Avionics News February 2017 - 47
Avionics News February 2017 - 48
Avionics News February 2017 - 49
Avionics News February 2017 - 50
Avionics News February 2017 - 51
Avionics News February 2017 - 52
Avionics News February 2017 - 53
Avionics News February 2017 - 54
Avionics News February 2017 - 55
Avionics News February 2017 - 56
Avionics News February 2017 - 57
Avionics News February 2017 - 58
Avionics News February 2017 - 59
Avionics News February 2017 - 60
Avionics News February 2017 - 61
Avionics News February 2017 - 62
Avionics News February 2017 - 63
Avionics News February 2017 - 64
Avionics News February 2017 - 65
Avionics News February 2017 - 66
Avionics News February 2017 - 67
Avionics News February 2017 - 68
Avionics News February 2017 - 69
Avionics News February 2017 - 70
Avionics News February 2017 - 71
Avionics News February 2017 - 72
Avionics News February 2017 - Cover3
Avionics News February 2017 - Cover4
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