Why many GA aircraft still run 50 year old engine designs
airfactsjournal.com
airfactsjournal.com
There are a few spots of competition such as wide body aircraft but narrow bodies are a race between a 1968 and 1982 design. The #1 thing that every unit at my university says is holding them back is the local airport, which sucks because they are flying 1990 jets. Jet makers would like to make regional jets that are much more economical and a little bigger, they’d have no trouble filling them because lower costs would lead to a ‘southwest effect’ that would increase demand. Pilot unions won’t let US airlines buy them because of ‘scope clauses’.
The wheels turn slowly, but they do turn.
6mo ago all the health and environmental types were (rightfully) calling the status quo a disgrace. The usual pro-“cut the .gov slack that no other entity would be afforded” cheerleaders were nowhere to be found because even they knew the government was in the wrong on this one. But here’s we are one stroke of a pen later and people are acting like this is an example of the system working satisfactory.
The article talks about the serious problems in making change in the general aviation world. Some of the resistance is cultural but there are a lot of issues that are long-standing problems with FAA policy/bureaucracy. Eg: Pilot health is another hot-topic in this arena.