Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

3-1984

Degree Type

Dissertation

Major

Business Administration

Major Professor

Ray A. Mundy

Committee Members

Frank Davis, Joseph Frye, James Foggin, John Kirchenstein

Abstract

America's national aviation policy has always embodied a commitment to establish and maintain a commercial air transport system responsive to the needs of national defense. Up until 1978, the interests of the airlines tended, for the most part, to parallel those of defense planners. However, since 1978 the airlines' domestic operating environment has changed dramatically, raising serious questions regarding the continued policy of relying on the civil sector for the majority of this nation's contingency airlift support. In order to address some of those questions, various aspects of airline operations, the military airlift system, and commercial aircraft manufacturing were examined.

The results showed that, in the first instance, the composition of the U.S. airliner fleet is shifting away from aircraft capable of fulfilling long-range airlift requirements. Furthermore, while the number of foreign flag carriers serving the United States has not increased significantly since 1978, these airlines have realized gains in both passenger and cargo traffic to and from American points. In the second case, the Military Airlift Command (mac) was found to be lacking a significant percentage of the materials handling equipment required to support wartime airlift requirements, although sufficient ground support equipment and air crews are available to support a full MAC/CRAF activation. Finally, while the research found that U.S. airframe manufacturers have not experienced a decline in market share, the changing nature of foreign competition has become of deep managerial concern. In addition, the costs and risks of developing and producing a future generation heavylift, long-haul cargo aircraft were found to be more than commercial industry can be expected to support. The findings led to the conclusion that the needs of the civilian air transport industry no longer coincide with those of national defense. Our national aviation policy must be restated in light of these changes if this country is to maintain its position as the free world's primary supplier of military airlift.

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