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From: macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: General Aviation and Space Flight (gov't intervention)
Message-ID: <4522@drivax.UUCP>
Date: 7 Apr 89 21:20:24 GMT
References: <1885@randvax.UUCP> <10325@bcsaic.UUCP> <1989Mar22.054649.15822@utzoo.uucp> <3015@eos.UUCP> <1989Apr3.174529.1476@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod)
Organization: Digital Research, Monterey, CA
Lines: 25

In article <1989Apr3.174529.1476@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:

>Aircraft capable of carrying useful passenger loads were more expensive
>than you think, especially compared to the purchasing power of the fledgling
>airlines.  The fact is, airlines which tried to make money carrying
>passengers and ordinary freight consistently went broke in the early years.
>The US airline industry, and its aircraft suppliers, were kept alive by
>lucrative government air-mail contracts.  No equivalent for spaceflight
>has yet appeared.

Airlines are still going broke, and the survivors are often hurting.  Under
government regulation, "the trains ran on time"; after decades of doing
"business" in this way, one might expect it to take a decade or more to
convert over to an unregulated system.  Unfortunately the airlines are such
vital services that the public won't stand for much in the way of chaos; I
suspect the carriers are closer to re-regulation than they realize.  Part
of the blame for the chaos goes to the *non*-deregulation of gate slots at
airports - _Reason_ magazine had a good article about this recently.

I hope that the same thing doesn't happen to the US space program - i.e.,
years of operation as a state-operated and regulated monopoly, losing money
and remaining noncompetitive - then a catastrophic deregulation that follows
creating an even bigger problem.

Michael SLoan MacLeod  (amdahl!drivax!macleod)