Paine Field in Seattle suburb Everett, Washington, is definitely a unique airport. It's home to many GA aircraft and historical planes...to include an extremely rare Me-262. It's also the production and test facility for many of Boeing's big jets (the 787 just made news by flying there.)

It has a 3 runways (one big enough for the 747 and 777,) a control tower and sees 144,000 operations (takeoffs and landings) a year. It seems only natural that a couple of airlines would start running a few flights out of there every day, right?

Natural or not, over 400 locals vocalized their severe disapproval of airline operations from Paine Field at a recent FAA hearing.

I ran across a story at 9wsyr.com last week telling how the mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, is bad-mouthing Harrison Ford. I wondered how anyone could be so unwise as to insult a man who has been America's hero in dozens of ways over the years. What's the big issue at hand? Meigs Field, of course.

I'm attending the 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting this week in Orlando, FL. This conference is the premier forum for "scientists and engineers from industry, government, and academia to share and disseminate scientific knowledge and research results with a view toward new technologies for aerospace systems."

The United States' airlines are in bad shape. Many of them are rapidly loosing money and some recent incidents have garnered them some bad press. Although I don't agree with some of the ways they throw their weight around or how they treat many of their customers, the airlines are as critical to the United States as roads and waterways. Our economy could not exist as it does without them. As such, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has convened a national panel with the purpose of determining the future of the aviation industry.

I think this is a smart and responsible move. I get the feeling that individual airlines are so busy trying to keep from drowning that they're having a tough time looking at the big picture, let alone trying to help influence that picture in a positive way. Don't worry either, aviation groups such as the AOPA were invited to participate in this forum, so the little guys like many of us have representation too.

Aubrey Cohen wrote about this in his Seattle PI blog and had some interesting, if not startling revelations for us.

Several California municipalities have been involved in legal battles over governing air traffic lately. We've mentioned Santa Monica where the city is trying to ban jets of certain sizes and has been repeatedly told it doesn't have the right to impose such restrictions. California's Solano County recently tried to tax the charitable actions of a US hero as business.

None of these battles are over yet and more are brewing. The thing is, the government keeps siding with aviation and against local governments. You'd think that they'd get the idea.

The newest conflict is centered around Burbank's Bob Hope Airport. The city of Burbank recently asked the FAA to approve a nighttime curfew at the airport from 10:00 pm to 6:59 am. The LA Times reports that after thoroughly evaluating the issue, the FAA rejected the proposal, continuing to guarantee the freedom of air traffic in the area.

The city provided research claiming that their ban on nighttime flights would generate $67 million in benefits for local citizens as opposed to $48 million in costs to aircraft operators and passengers (those passengers being the same people who claim the benefits already mentioned.) In spite of this, the FAA ruled that "...it is not likely the benefits will outweigh the costs to users." The bottom line is that, our nation relies on air transportation and a city whose airport receives federal funding doesn't have the right to deny use of that airport.

A recent article in Aviation Week provides some interesting insight to a report issued by the RTCA about how we will implement the NextGen air traffic control system in the United States. Unfortunately, I'm not comforted by what I read.

Who doesn’t like free stuff, especially free stuff that we would normally pay good money for. Even better, stuff for free that we would normally pay good money for that we can use for flying! John Baute got tired of two things, carrying around a suitcase full of paper IFR charts and approach plates, and paying for printed charts and plates (every couple of months when they expire) when the information is free from the FAA. To solve both problems, John started pdfplates.com.

After a lot of controversy over the FAA issuing fines to Southwest Airlines last spring, the FAA is at it again. According to examiner.com and the East Valley Tribune, the FAA has given United Airlines $3.8M in fines and US Airways got $5.4M.