Essay Instructions: CHOOSING THE MID-TERM GRIDLOCK COMMUTER AIRCRAFT (PAV) DESCRIBE HOW SOCIETY WOULD ADAPT TO THESE VEHCILES. DESCRIBE THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE IMPACTS ON EVERYDAY LIFE THAT OUR SOCIETY WOULD EXPERIENCE WITH THE WIDESPREAD USE OF PERSONAL AIR VEHICLES. INDICATE HOW YOUR PERSONAL LIFE WOULD BE DIFFERENT THAN IT IS TODAY. INCLUDE A BRIEF SECTION (NO MORE THAT 2 PAGES) TO DEMONSTRATE THAT STUDENTS HAVE DONE INTERNET RESEARCH USING CURRENT GOVERNMENT AND TRAVEL AGENCY STUDIES TO UNDERSTAND AUTO AND AIRLINE USE TO MEET TRAVEL NEEDS IN OUR CURRENT SOCIETY, EXPERT PROJECTIONS FOR TRAVEL USING AUTOS AND AIRLINES OVER THE NEXT 25 YEARS; AND PROJECTED CONGESTION AND MOBILITY PROBLEMS UNLESS ALTERNATE TRANSPORTATION SOLUTIONS ARE INVESTIGATED.
Mid-term Gridlock Commuter Aircraft: A two-seat recreational and commuter aircraft that can take off and land, clearing 35 ft. obstacles, in less than 500 feet, can travel on side streets at 25 mph, can fly at 150 mph, costs less than $50,000, makes no more noise than a motorcycle, and has a fuel efficiency of 40 miles per gallon using automotive fuels. Currently a vehicle that approaches this capability is the auto-gyro that carries 1 to 2 people at speeds less than 80 mph, can takeoff and land from almost any small grass field, but cannot travel on side-streets for door-to-door use.
Choose one or more of the vehicles described above and describe how society would adapt to these types of vehicles. Describe the positive and negative impacts on everyday life that our society would experience with the widespread use of personal air vehicles. Indicate how your personal life would be different than it is today. Include a brief section (no more than two pages) to demonstrate that students have done Internet research using current government and travel agency studies* to understand: Auto and airline use to meet travel needs in our current society; Expert projections for travel using autos and airlines over the next 25 years; and Projected congestion and mobility problems unless alternate transportation solutions are investigated. Include a bibliography or list of references, including URLs, questionnaires, oral interviews, and any other sources other than student's opinion.* Helpful Hints: To help focus their papers, student can begin by choosing one or two of the following questions to address. These questions are offered as a starting point to help students generate ideas, they are not meant as a format for the paper. The paper is limited to 7 pages so students should limit their responses to areas that most interest them. Where in the country would PAVs likely be used first? Who would use these types of vehicles and for what purpose? How might neighborhoods change? Would people choose to live in communities such as Airparks? (For example, see http://www.longislandairpark.com/) Would shopping malls provide access to these vehicles by adding small runways? Would businesses in places like the Silicon Valley put in small runways (such as at the Cisco or Sun technology campuses) for their employees? How many people would use PAVs and how often? How does on-demand (you travel when and where you want to go), personal air travel compare to scheduled service airline travel? How would people be trained to operate these types of vehicles?/li> Where would people choose to live and work if they had these vehicles and how would this change property values? How would vehicles be repaired, maintained, and fueled and what types of new businesses would result? How would PAVs compete with other technologies, such as teleconferencing and video conferencing? How would PAVs factor into the transition from centralized to distributed technologies and subsequent markets? (For example, in the 1970's we used mainframe computers that were replaced by workstation computers in the 1980's. Technology advances eventually led to personal computers in the 1990's and to handheld, wireless computing devices in the present. Is there a role that PAVs might play in a similar transition for the transportation industry?) Instead of trying to answer all possible questions about PAVs, students should concentrate on one or two specific areas of interest to them when addressing the four required elements. Students should back up their opinions with a reliable, recognized source of information to justify their position. Students can then use their imagination to extrapolate beyond the available information. Students might consider interviewing their local populations with a questionnaire that could be used to tabulate responses. If such interviews are conducted, students should record the number of people interviewed, the location of the interview, the date, the age and gender of the interviewee and any other pertinent data. Students should consult a reliable reference on making questionnaires to ensure that theirs is unambiguous and unbiased.* Students should consult sources like the National and State Transportation Statistics to study what types of data collection and analysis are currently used to characterize American transportation.* Students might want to make a digital illustration depicting how the PAVs are used in 2030. This illustration can be hand-drawn and scanned into digital format, or it can be computer drawn and saved as a jpg file. Illustration should be no larger than 1.0 MB in size and should be based on student research for the paper. For example, the illustration could show PAVs used in fire and rescue missions, urban commuter situations, rural travel situations, law enforcement scenarios, a community plan that embraces PAV's, imagined infrastructure layouts that show the ability to avoid congestion at takeoff and landing areas, and others that students might imagine. Though many types of illustrations are possible, choose only one to include in the paper.
