Aviation, the Environment, and the Public Interest

The central challenge facing aviation today is its compatibility with the natural and social environment. So far the aviation community has tried to duck this challenge by minimizing the environmental problems associated with aviation. Many of aviation's environmental problems have been caused by the failure of aviation planning, which has been honored in the breach. With the politicization of environmental concern, aviation faces an era in which its progress will be determined in part by the many decisions made necessary by the environmental crisis. Air progress will be measured in the future not by “economy, speed, or power, but the quality of life that results.”