Excerpts From Jim Campbell's Speech At the 2013 Redbird Migration Flight training Conference
Aviation would seem to be an innovative industry... look at it... cool flying machines everywhere, space-age electronics, and don't get me started on the cool way we pilots get to talk to the ground hogs... and yet this industry is held prisoner to a well-worn phrase and attitude... that of, "that's the way we've always done it."
Gag me with a prop....
Keep that attitude and aviation will die a slow and possibly deserved death... but, instead, I suggest that we should be prepared to look at any and all manner of innovative, evolutionary, revolutionary and even radical solutions so that amazing things may result... specifically, the re-creation of an industry that once set the world on a new path to adventure as well as prosperity... and may yet do so again.
One of the things that upsets me most is the attitude that seems to be espoused, all too often, about returning aviation to past glories...
Why?
Boys and girls... we've done that. Aviation should not be setting its sights on recreating the past... but on building an altogether new future... one that may even eclipse everything we once valued about our history. We should not be looking to recapture the best of the old days... but in building something better, more revolutionary and far more successful... because we should now be smart enough to see it be designed to compete and survive in a future that is altogether different from that we experienced when aviation was at its so-called zenith.
Buzz Aldrin tells me that all revolutions start with the smallest of steps (and he should know)... the germ of an idea... and then another... and another until a series of evolutionary improvements produces the cascade effect that creates a true revolution. Let me show you some amazing sights and tell you about a few revolutions that I was privileged to be a part of in the past and will continue to be a part of in the future.
XPrize
One of the coolest guys I've ever met and one of my most valued friends is a guy by the name of Peter Diamandis. Starting adult life as a Medical Doctor, Peter was inspired to a new path by a pilot friend to read a book about the Orteig prize that challenged aviator Charles Lindbergh to cross the Atlantic and make history. This evolutionary step in aviation inspired Peter to jump start what he saw as a moribund private and commercial space industry with a ten million dollar prize just like that which Lindbergh pursued and won decades before -- albeit for a much smaller amount. The upshot of this radical adventure was the entry of several dozen teams in a contest to produce the first private spaceship... and it was a prize that was won by a homebuilding Icon who started with model airplanes, worked as an engineer in civil aviation and went on to design and sell plans for a number of experimental homebuilt airplanes that also went on to make history... and were soon joined by the around the world
Voyager and his greatest achievement of all, SpaceShipOne... which now proudly hangs in the Smithsonian after a series of sub-orbital flights that culminated in producing the first private/commercial astronauts in history...
The upshot? The thirty or so million spent on building this dream was the basis for an industry that is already seen hundreds of millions in investment... and may be flying space tourists as early as late next year.
Zero-G
Let's talk Zero-G! Zero-Gravity... is amazing. And while many people may never be able to afford the 200,000 dollars necessary to buy a seat on SpaceShipTwo, a few thousand dollars will get you several minutes of delicious Zero-G, thirty extraordinary seconds at a time. I got to help Peter Diamandis and our other partners start the first commercial Zero-G airline... which has grown to not only conduct hundreds of safe commercial flights up to this point... but has proven to be so dependable and well-managed that it now conducts these same services for NASA... and get this... it makes money.
Rocket Racing
One of the most innovative projects I've ever been involved in was the Rocket Racing League concept... a project that has, so far, failed miserably. BUT not for lack of trying... instead, for lack of funding -- yeah, we ran out of money... But, with the firm historical records of the many successes that came aviation's way as a result of such extraordinary events like aviation's early air races... the new designs, the new skills, the new concepts... and the willingness to embrace some truly radical concepts, aviation's collective knowledge grew immeasurably due to the human need to compete with each other and to build phenomenal aircraft to make it possible to win. The Rocket Racing League produced several new prototypes with differing propulsion systems, flew dozens of times and will, God willing, be used as a starting point as soon as someone really smart ultimately solves the biggest challenge of all... that you need lots of bucks if you want to play Buck Rogers...
ANN
If you will forgive a little pride in my favorite undertaking... I'm pleased to tell you of a tiny little revolution I had the chance to instigate myself some years ago... as the owner/publisher of an aviation print magazine, I grew impatient with the concept of killing new trees to print old news... and as the web grew out of infancy... over 15 years ago, we sold out of all our print projects and did something that EVERYONE and I mean, everyone, told me I was nuts to do ... to create the first 24/7 real-time aviation online news service... Folks, that was 180,000 stories, 6000 podcasts and nearly 2000 video news programs ago... and we're about to start the most radical upgrade yet...
Why?
Because those who stand still, mesmerized by their so-called successes, are bound to be run over by those who are rushing forward to build an altogether NEW future... even a radical one.
Redbird
Finally... we're here, ultimately, to talk about flight training... But remember this... no one goes to space without first learning to fly... this nation defended its freedom with men and women who first started their journey as aviators by the grace of God and some damned good flight instruction, the country achieved new records in progress and commerce because pilots got our business owners and leaders to where they needed to be when they needed to be there -- and all those pilots started with a flight school and a flight instructor... sometime, somewhere... right here in the country that gave birth to Wilbur and Orville.
That being the case, I'm amazed to note that Flight Training hasn't changed much over the decades since Kill Devil Hill... it’s a steady, conservative, even staid affair... where the rules are well drawn, the FAA has proscribed our every move and innovation is often frowned upon... why? Because "That's the way we've always done it" has ruled the roost and with it, the MOST critical industry in all of aviation.
Brother Jerry and his partners opined that flight training COULD be innovative, Flight simulators COULD BE really useful tools for nearly all phases and modalities of flight, and that flight training aircraft could reflect the realities of the times and not be priced out of the reach of today's struggling flight schools... Innovation pure and simple, Innovation 101, if you will ... evolutionary changes building upon one another until the resultant cascade effect creates true change, lasting change, sustainable industries and a new future for the world of aviation...
Thanks Jerry... and welcome to the revolution, folks!
You ain't seen nothing yet... aviation can and will see its best days... in our future. Innovation will make it so, because the most exciting pursuit known to man, demands it.
Thank you.
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.13.24)
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