Policy Makers Ponder the Future Of Aviation

摘要

From the Wright brothers to space exploration, nothing stirs the American imagination like the adventure of flight. Not surprisingly, then, there is no shortage of speculation about the future shape of the air transportation system. Some see a trend toward larger aircraft carrying many hundreds of passengers. Others envision growing numbers of air taxis, four-to-six-pas-senger "microjets," or commercial space vehicles. "I don't pretend to know what [the system] is going to look like," says Jeffrey N. Shane, the undersecretary of policy for the U.S. Department of Transportation." I think the market will tell us. ... But the one thing we can be absolutely confident of is that there are going to be many, many more operations — takeoffs and landings — than we have today."