Aircraft

Perhaps the best way to define general aviation is to begin by listing what it is not. General aviation is not military aviation and it is not scheduled commercial aviation. To a great extent, all other uses of aviation in the United States fall into the category of general aviation. These uses include, but are not limited to, private and sport flying, aerial photography and surveying, cropdusting, business flying, medical evacuation, flight training, and the police and fire fighting uses of aircraft.

The airplanes used in general aviation range from small, single-engine, fabric-covered aircraft to multi-million dollar business jets. They also include helicopters, restored warbirds, and homebuilt aircraft designed to use advanced composite technology. The term general aviation came into use during the 1950s. Before that time, commentators talked of private flying or business flying. Regardless of the term or terms used, the non-military and non-commercial airline uses of aviation date back to the very early history of powered flight.

Shortly after Wilbur and Orville Wright's invention came to public attention, people in the United States began to dream big dreams of what the new technology would bring. Many beliefs came to make up what historian Joseph Corn called the "winged gospel". One part of the winged gospel included a vision of a future in which the airplane would be as common a form of transportation as the automobile. There would be, as some put it, an airplane in every garage. Another part of the winged gospel included the hope that participation in aviation would allow women and African Americans to gain greater equality in American society. Aviation never completely fulfilled that promise. In fact, many areas of aviation activity, including military flying and commercial airlines, barred women and African Americans for much of the twentieth century. However, both women and African Americans found their first opportunities to participate in flight in general aviation...

...What is now known as general aviation really did not emerge fully until after the mid-1920s. Nonetheless, even before then a number of individuals began to experiment with uses of flight technology that would later become important parts of general aviation. For example, the first uses of airplanes for crop treatment, aerial surveying, and corporate flying all dated before the mid-1920s. Also, the first production and purchases of aircraft for private uses also happened very early in the history of flight. Wealthy individuals and some early exhibition pilots purchased aircraft from such pioneer aircraft manufacturers as the Wright brothers and their chief rival, Glenn Curtiss.

Just before World War I, Clyde Cessna, a self-taught exhibition pilot, briefly operated his first aircraft company, one he founded with the purpose of building and selling small, relatively inexpensive aircraft for personnel use.Cessna and those who followed him in the 1920s and early 1930s faced a number of difficulties as they tried repeatedly to build the type of aircraft that would allow for the realization of the dreams of the winged gospel. One of the biggest obstacles to the goal of an airplane in every garage was the aircraft engine...

...Through the 1920s and into the 1930s engines remained often the most expensive parts of the aircraft. The relatively affordable engines available, such as the OX-5, were so large and heavy that they demanded the design of large aircraft. Smaller, lighter engines were both very expensive and hard to get as most of the best were produced in Europe, not the United States. The dream of affordable, personal aircraft would have to wait.

General aviation received a tremendous boost in the late 1920s with the trans-Atlantic flight of Charles Lindbergh. His celebrated feat created a great deal of enthusiasm for flight of all kinds. In particular his flight encouraged many to continue to explore the varied uses of aviation technology. At the same time, though, as aviation grew as an activity, government regulations at both the state and federal levels worked to make access to flight a little more difficult. While the new programs did help give birth to the commercial airline industry, they also began to demand that pilots earn licenses and that aircraft receive certification. These measures undoubtedly helped make general aviation safer. At the same time though, the age of the backyard builder and self-taught pilot were numbered.

Much of the history of general aviation has been shaped by the dreams and beliefs of the winged gospel. Though those dreams and beliefs have never been realized, they remain. Despite a reality that sometimes seemed to make the goals of the winged gospel all but impossible, the enthusiasm with which Americans have embraced aviation technology (similar to many other technologies) has kept the dreams alive. It remains to be seen whether they can survive into another century.

The End

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