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Perspectives
A New Era Takes To The Wind
Right about now everyone is focused on the 100th anniversary of powered flight, scheduled to take place in Kitty Hawk. Much of the media focus has been on the tremendous technical and personal challenges that the Wright brothers had to overcome to usher in the era of powered flight.
And since this is the last issue of the first year of publication for our magazine, it got us to thinking about the challenges we have faced bringing you this first year of Aviator’s Guide.
Needless to say, any new endeavor faces challenges. In our case, those challenges included conventional “wisdom” and an industry that struggles even today to embrace change and innovation.
In the last year, we have been told by a few aviation companies that the “pilot,” who typically is male, makes 100 percent of the aviation-related purchasing decisions. We’ve talked to pilots who say this is universally untrue. No aviation purchase, whether it is for an new airplane used primarily for business travel or an avionics upgrade that makes the airplane more reliable, is made by the pilot alone. Dollars spent flying could be spent elsewhere, so any time a pilot can get buy-in from the non-pilot partner, it increases the amount that’s going to be spent on aviation.
We’ve been told that our publication is too soft. Again, that’s not what we’re hearing from readers, who write us letters every day saying how it’s great to have a publication they can read with their families that doesn’t get bogged down in all the technical mumbo-jumbo required to get the airplane safely off the ground.
Sure, we’ve faced challenges during the first year of this publication. And we’ve enjoyed conquering them. As we embark next year on our second year of publication of Aviator’s Guide, the world begins its second century of powered flight. We’d like to thank the many readers and advertisers who have supported us so far, and say that we look forward to serving you for many years to come. You are the people who share this vision, and you are the future of aviation.
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