Viewing page 16 of 91

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-2-

the Civil Aeronautics Board." (House Report
No. 2360, August 2, 1956).

It is the purpose of this Review to examine generally into the extent to which FAA has discharged those responsibilities by using its broad authority and independence to implement the mandates of Congress.

IT. GENERAL AVIATION: AIRSPACE USERS UNDER PART 135.

FAA projections shows that some 113,000 civil aircraft now populate the skies over the United States. One two per cent of that number, about 2300 aircraft, are operated by the Nation's airlines. The remaining ninety-eight per cent--some 112,000 airplanes-- belong to "general aviation", a vast body of private, civil and commercial operators which defies any more precise description. While airline aircraft will, in 1968, use the skies for a total of some 5.5 million hours, general aviation's use of the same airspace will more than quadruple the airlines total this year. For those who believe that air traffic density in congested areas has reached its saturation point, it is well to not FAA's projection that, for both airlines and general aviation, that next ten years will see total aircraft aloft and total volume of airspace use nearly double.

In 1967, more than three million passengers were carried on a revenue basis through our Nation's airspace by air carriers who are currently, for purpose of safety requirements, treated by FAA not as airlines but as part of general aviation, and thus subject only to the general aviation safety standards of Part 135 of the FAR. These airspace users are part of a steadily growing number

4