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[quote user="Maglev"] But what is the FAA trying to keep the civilian and military planes from hitting?  Left alone, they would be a lot easier to manage.  We need our level of air traffic control mainly because of commercial aviation.[/quote] Each other!  At least 70 per cent of aircraft operations in the United States are general aviation, which includes business aviation, and military aviation.  If there were no commercial airlines operating in the United States, there still would be a need for a positive air traffic control system.      Most people are carried on commercial airline airplanes.  This is one reason the commercial airlines argue that they pay a higher percentage of the costs than is justified by the number of flights they operate.  They argue, rightfully so, that the FAA's workload is a function of the number of airplanes that they control.  It is not the number of passengers on each airplane.  The cost to control a Learjet is the same as the cost to control a Boeing 747. If the entire federal subsidy transferred to the FAA was allocated to the commercial airlines, which would be bad accounting, the outcome per passenger and passenger mile would be nearly the same.  The amount of federal subsidy received by airline passengers, on average, is about 8 per cent of the federal subsidy received by an average Amtrak passenger. I hold every FAA license (air and ground) except rotorcraft (helicopters).  I was a full time and part time instructor for more than 20 years.  I logged thousands of hours.  I know a little bit about airplanes, air traffic control, and the FAA. I flew from tower controlled fields in Connecticut, North Carolina, and Texas.  Oftentimes I flew under an IFR flight plan, which means that I was controlled by arrival and departure control, Enroute control, and tower control.  Not one of these field hoisted commercial airline operations.  Of the airports that had commercial flights, they accounted for less than 15 to 20 per cent of operations.  It is only at the large hub airports, e.g. LAX, DFW, Kennedy, etc. that airline flights outnumber general aviation flights.
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