What are some political issues involving airplanes?

Question

What are some political issues involving airplanes?

Answer 1

911, airport security, the resent veto of the patriot act (allows gov to tap phones to monitor terrorist activity, established after 911).

Answer 2

Aircraft design and production is BIG business. Therefore political maneuvering goes on. Example :

A contract of billions of dollars for production of a new fleet of air to air re-fueling planes. Much of the production will be performed by subcontractors not in the U.S.A.  The issues; American vs. foreign jobs, national security ( These are WAR planes for our air force).   Politics,= Money

Another example:

The production of small, private aviation airplanes:  In the past, especially since WWII every time a light plane crashed the lawyers went after the airplane maker instead of the pilot.  So the small plane industry went away. The makers and sellers of individual parts such as wings, tires, fuel tanks, instruments also got sued. Can't afford the insurance to make parts anymore because of no insurance coverage.

Answer 3

One of the big ones facing General Aviation users in the US in the past year has been structural reorganization of the FAA with the inclusion of users fees to support the changes. The way the proposals were written, users of General Aviation would have to pay fees for things like IFR flight plans, radar advisories, ILS approaches, weather briefings and just about anything else that involved anything to do with Air Traffic Control plus a few other things. The bulk of these proposals were brought forth from the airline industry in an effort to remove some of the fees that they pay and put them onto the backs of private pilots and corporate aviation even though the airlines use the bulk of ATC services. The issue is in a state of limbo at the moment but you can bet its far from dead. See www.aopa.org and search for "user fees" for more info.

Another issue is the use of leaded fuels in piston aircraft. A lot of environmental groups want it removed but there is no safe substitute for it at the moment. This will become a much larger issue between the lead content and the price of fuel.