DBWI: America Without The Common Plane

Yes, the Ford 'Flying Flivver' went on sale in 1930, but I'm using 1931 as an excuse to declare 2011 as "Eighty Years Of Air" reflecting how '31 actually saw more than 10k Flivvers sold (versus a mere fraction of that in 1930.)


I just want to examine the fantastic history of and role played by widespread airplane ownership in these United States (and in similarly situated countries, of course; hello Canada et al!) and to boldly imagine what life could be like without airplanes as accessible to "normal" people as say electric refrigerators or bicycles.


I'll share a pic of the plane that started it all, the humble one-seat Ford 'Flying Flivver' that brought airplane ownership into feasible reality for so many people. This of course is the FF in the Smithsonian Museum, the 1st production model built!

flivver_big.jpg
 
Some say the FF was akin to Ford's Model T, shattering the barrier between airplane-as-upperclass-item and airplane-as-everyperson-item.

I (along with others, I know) say the two-seat 15P was akin to the Ford V8, shattering that same barrier for nice, powerful airplanes, even using that car's Ford V8 motor to underline the point :)


edit: yes, yes, that's my project plane in the picture, no, I'm not repainting this week, and yes, it's safe!

edit2: yes, in fact, it's one of the now-rare-ish 15P Conscript models, with mounts for machine guns still intact! No, I don't have the actual guns themselves. And, no, I don't think I'll be putting Nerf shooters in their place, ha ha.

ford-15p.jpg
 
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Worse air safety technology, for one thing. With a knock on effect on other air transport.

Maybe no National Highways? I know trucks use them, but without airplanes taking off and landing all the time I find it hard to believe it would be worth it. Who wants to drive that far?

Reduced, or even absent, public transport in towns and cities. Would we have trams and subways everywhere now if you could just land in between two skyscrapers?
 
I'm always somewhat amused that while just about everybody gives props to a businessman for designing a product Americans like to buy, so many absolutely refuse to give props to the public officials and policies that made making them a part of our daily lives possible. (I'm guessing those people are going to be all over me on how the rise of the common private plane was inevitable.)

So on topic -- props to FDR, MacCracken, and MacDonald for making the Neighborhood Airstrip Provision and Airstrip and Highway Act part of the New Deal. Without those projects, most Americans wouldn't have anywhere to take off or land their planes close to home.
 
Well, to start with the obvious stuff:

- long distance travel would be a lot slower and more difficult, having to find decent roads going through rural and mountainous areas of the country that actually go where you want. (I tried a "road trip" once, I was still in college. The worst part was trying to get the semi's to keep from crowding me off of the highway. But there was also the problem of having to drive from Salt Lake City to Sacramento in order to get to Portland.)

- but, short distance commuting would be much easier if I could just get out on the road to go to work instead of having to wait in traffic to taxi my plane at the Lambeau Field airport and then again waiting for a landing clearance at the Pulaski-Cermak strip, just to get to work in Chicago every morning.

- Urban development would be much less widespread, with bedroom communities, if they'd exist at all, building up much closer to the cities where we work, maybe even in what they used to call the suburbs, instead of hundreds of miles away.

- You'd completely remove the number one cause of death in our society (airplane accidents).

- There'd be much less of a backlash on alcohol these days without the problems of FWI's, since driving a car while intoxicated can't be anywhere near half as bad.

- But the biggest benefit of all, of course, would be: No used plane salesmen!
 
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It was interesting to see how post-war the German "Volksleichtflugzeug" (VLF) and the British "Morris Minotaur", both basically what we would now call microlights, made such inroads into the Ford market. Cheap, basic, reliable aircraft with low overheads.
 
It was interesting to see how post-war the German "Volksleichtflugzeug" (VLF) and the British "Morris Minotaur", both basically what we would now call microlights, made such inroads into the Ford market. Cheap, basic, reliable aircraft with low overheads.

Interesting point, though I am surprised you left out the plethora of Japanese civilian aircraft that have all but dominated the market these days and have caused numerous trade problems. Perhaps in TTL this production capacity is used to produce small automobiles instead. Like the foreign microlights, these small autos would be perfect following the energy crisis of the 1970's.

Also one should keep in mind the effect this will have on the upcoming Second World War. Without the growth of the civilian aircraft market that occurred in OTL, there simply won't be the production capacity to produce the mighty airfleets that blackened the skies over Europe, the Pacific, and Japan.

(That being said, I doubt there'd actually be less production capacity in TTL, it'll just look different...Afterall it's a lot harder to convert a automobile factory to produce fighting vehicles than it is to convert an aircraft factory.)

Other technologies such as mid flight refueling, air transport, paratroopers etc. might be retarded as well in TTL perhaps leading to a more "conventional" World War II...
 
Evacuations from natural disasters would be a lot harder. Can you imagine the chaos if New Orleans had to be evacuated by car before Hurricane Katrina?
 
The Common Plane was a great introduction in transportation. May I show my first Plane.
gal_flyingcar1.jpg


It was a 2004 Terrafugia Transition. It was an early model of what is now known as Hybrid Birds, or Common Planes that run on electricity.
 
America would consume a lot less oil. When oil consumption between us and say the UK we still consume more despite them having an average of 3 cars per adult while we only have one plane for every three house holds!

Imagine if all those people in Baltimore and Philadelphia lived out in the boonies and drove into the city each day like they do in the UK, bonkers!

Can you imagine driving for more than an hour each day, each way? Some Brits actually do that...
 
America would consume a lot less oil. When oil consumption between us and say the UK we still consume more despite them having an average of 3 cars per adult while we only have one plane for every three house holds!

Interesting, then the world may still not have reached peak oil, meaning energy wise we'd still be somewhere at pre-1980 levels of production and use. Then again, that could mean we'd have a lot less in the way of non-petroleum based energy sources...
 
Today's plane/gliders consume a ton less fuel than even a generation ago. Sure some acceleration and top speed was sacrificed as well but my 2008 Ford Falcon gets over 100 miles to the gallon or more even with the initial takeoff burn factored in... Sure people are reluctant to give up their bigger, more powerful planes for hybrids but my fuel bill has dropped by 70%+

One big change I see is the FAA remaining a single bureaucracy rather than being forced to split into three agencies in the 70's shakeup.

Radar, GPS and weather tracking wouldn't be nearly as advanced either. I'm glad Johnson cancelled the manned space program in favor of the early LandTrac and NOAA Surveyor satellites. The Russkies spent a sizable percentage of their GDP putting a man on the moon for propaganda (although I can understand the awe people felt when Valeri Bykovski first put his foot on the moon with the Mir 5 mission, I was amazed even watching a tape 15 years after the 1974 mission) while we put up the LandTracs and Surveyors.
 
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