It is good news that the joint program and development office (JPDO), formed recently at the direction of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, is crafting a national policy on air transportation. Many voices, among them mine when I served as president of NBAA, called for a vision and mission statement by the U.S.
government that identifies air transport in all its forms as an enabling technology for achieving our nation’s economic and social objectives. The President’s Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry called for such a policy in its final report, issued last year. The JPDO, which includes representatives from the departments oftransportation, commerce, defense and homeland security in addition to the FAA and NASA, is working to meet a December 31 deadline for defining the government’s future role in air transportation.
Early last month, as president of General Aero Co., I had the privilege of participating in one of the JPDO workshops to identify strategies that would apply to the role of transportation in addressing future needs of the nation. We were tasked with reviewing, and then challenging or augmenting, transportation strategies developed by government leaders during a similar JPDO workshop a few weeks earlier.
