mustangdriver wrote:
I think you got it backwards. It there is no general aviation, you have no commercial aviation. You have to start flying in the small stuff before going on to thte big stuff. What is the last milestone to be set by commercial aviation? The Wright Borthers, Lindbergh, Yeager, Armstrong, Rutan. None of these people were airline pilots. Saying that without airlines, there is no general aviation is like saying without a greyhound bus, no one could drive. As an ex-employee of the airlines, I can say that the airlines are in no way part of what is good about aviation.
muddyboots wrote:
If it weren't for commercial aviation, aviation museums like taht one, and general aviation would not exist. We al know that the vast majority of serivices they live of of are byproducts of commercial aviation.
So complaining that a museum has been driven out by an airports attempt to make money is like a child complaining that his mother won't let him suck her milk 'cause she has to cover her boob and go back to work.
Well then, what we should do is close them down and watch airports disappear as they have no financing. And avgas prices skyrocket due to low demand. And all of the techincal knowledge of flying, pilot skills, mechanic skills, and those oh so adorable stews will mostly go away, as they have litle inclination or ability to work for free. Oh, and when the airports close, so do the restaraunts and skymall, the travel agencies and the vast majority of world tourism.
ComAv supports that. Were it not there, you wouldn't be there. Your job would evaporate within years, driven out by high fuel prices and lack of support. You can't keep aviation skills current or exercised sitting on your couch looking at pictures of aircraft on the internet. You actually have to use them. The military wants those skills exercised for its reserves, and the government in general depends on those skills for a variety of reasons--most importantly to KEEP AVIATION in general afloat, because our economy is now heavily dependant on the ability to move goods, warm bodies, and services across the globe immediately.
No, I think we can safely say that Com AV is the reason we get to walk around in cool aviation museums. That a few get moved, closed or sold out is sad, but they would have never been there, as I said, without Com Av in the first place.
Milestones? Chuck yeager did exactly what for out GNP in all he years he flew? The wright brothers--they bought a bunch of jets and started a business based around the idea of shipping packeges oevrnight, which turned into a multi billion dollar industry and made Tom Hanks talk to a soccerball?
C'mon mustang. I know what your heart is saying, but my pocket book is saying the hard cold facts. Without Com Av's money, tehre would be no GenAv left. It would soon dwindle to grass runways, then ballons, then kites...then looking at the pretty pictures and wishing we had the skills to do that again.