Aviation - General Information

Aviation History

Dec 17, 1903 - The Wright Flyer lifted from level ground and Orville Wright achieved the first powered, controlled, sustained and piloted flight. His brother, Wilbur Wright, timed the flight with a stopwatch from the ground. On that first flight, the Wright Flyer travelled slightly more than 36 meters; the flight lasted 12 seconds.

Since then aviation has gone through continuous developments: aerodynamics, propulsion, technology; everything has been subject to huge changes.

Propeller, Tuboprop, Piston, Jet: more powerful, economical and advanced engines are developed every few decades. Aircraft become larger, quieter, faster and go further.

Who ever expected all of this in 1903.. or what will the future bring?!

Aviation Today

Aviation has become part of many peoples' daily lives. Air travel is becoming increasingly popular and a regular transport means for many.

Because of the inreased air traffic, all aspects of aviation have had to grow along: aircraft crews, airline personnel, airports, air traffic control, aviation related companies and suppliers, and so on...

There are several different types of aviation. General aviation, commercial aviation and business aviation are the largest aviation sectors. And of course there's military aviation ...

General aviation is all unscheduled civil aviation except carriers; commercial aviation mainly airline operations and other commercial flights with paying passengers; business aviation includes flights transporting company employees for business purposes, often with small (private) jets; military aviation obviously denotes all flights by military organisations.

The Aviation Business

Many people work in the business... If you have flown from a big airport once, you may have noticed that a flight from A to B requires more than just two pilots, a few flight attendants and some boarding staff. Few people actually realize this.

To mention some of the many different of jobs in aviation: pilots, flight attendants, flight crew trainers, flight planners, aircraft technicians, check-in and boarding personnel, other airport ground staff, airport customs and security, luggage car, fuel truck, tow truck and passenger bus drivers, air traffic controllers, airports managers, staff and maintenance personnel, and so forth...

It's a very large, international business in which many different people from all cultures have their daily full-time job, day and night.

General Aviation

General Aviation (GA) refers to all private flights with private or rented aircraft, which is non-scheduled. Some popular airplanes are: Cessna 172, Cessna 182, Piper Warrior.
About everyone can get their Private Pilots Licence (PPL) which allows you to fly small aircraft on your own. Especially in the United States, general aviation is extremely popular and many people, even many under 20, own a PPL licence.

Professional Aviation

This aviation sector includes all commercial or business flights which are operated by paid professional pilots, owning a Commercial Pilots Licence (CPL) or Airline Transport Pilots Licence (ATPL) and of course an Instrument Rating (IR). It includes all airline flights as well (requires ATPL-licenced pilots).

Aircraft used range from small (Pilatus PC-12) to very large (Boeing 777, Airbus A380).