J. Twombly, associate editor at Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, poses an interesting question on his blog today: Is aviation splitting in two? What do you think?
Twombly wonders whether aviation may be splitting into two distinct camps, as he says, the “no foolin’ around go-somewhere types, and the very light airplane fly around the pattern type.”
The first types use the airplane as a tool, for business or pleasure. The second group uses it purely for fun, and wants flying to become even more fun as time goes by, Twombly says
“In other words, we have one group that wants airplanes to be faster, carry more, and have a high dispatch rate, and another group that wants the airplane to be cheap, slow, and carry one or two people. An extreme view might be that when the dust settles, no airplanes exist between a Cirrus and a Sport Cub. Well, nothing except for 172s used for training,” he says.
The catalyst is money, Twombly says. As credit tightens and things get more and more costly, a family’s income is increasingly dedicated to survival. “Those who believe the middle class in this country is going away probably also think our industry is changing to reflect the split scenario,” he said.
What do you think? I’d like to hear your views.
One Comment
That’s nothing new. The market has always been that way. An airplane buyer has 300+ makes and models to pick from. He can fly for fun, fly for transportation, or fly for business.