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We watched no other sports, just that one game, and we usually had to turn the sound down because the commentators were awful by our standards. We like football; we both understand football because we had both played it in high school (note how I effortlessly equate high school ball with professional ball). At least we knew the names of all the positions and some of the plays, which was more than we knew about basketball or hockey, and one game per year didn't eat as much of our time as say the World Series, so it was a win on an efficiency basis, too. One idea that we talked a lot about and both really liked was a community built around an airport on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, where the problems inherent in the urban life inescapably associated with Seattle could be avoided. Land prices were lower, social problems were much smaller, and the population density was minimal. The cost of a scenic stretch of country would be a tiny fraction of what such land would cost near Seattle, and the weather was better, if somewhat drier. Desert, really. But some people like that. Our idea hinged on building the community around an airport from which we would fly a small commercial airliner, like a 737, similar to the ones we were helping build at the time. We both worked in the factory doing MRB engineering work on the production line. We thought that having a hundred seat jet that could easily clear the Cascades and land safely at the three airports - Renton Field, Boeing Field, and Paine Field - we thought most likely to employ our target market (Boeing executives, managers, and senior engineers) was a brilliant innovation in the field. We were almost right. Economic development In our community vision, we had pilots and mechanics and engineers who could operate and maintain the airplane. We might even be able to employ some local people or find local jobs for spouses and teens. This is not a very detailed plan, I freely stipulate. However, I think it showed a particular vision that is a step up from the air parks we learned about a bit later on. The airpark An air park, or airpark, as we found out, is a residential community formed around a runway, a small airport, really. Some of them may have grass strips, depending on the kind of airplanes the community supports (usually classic biplanes if there is a grass strip). Some have taxiways that lead to the hangar attached to your house! I found it interesting that some airparks are private use only with zero commercial facilities. The aviation equivalent of a bedroom community cul de sac. Other airparks have on-site fuel and maintenance facilities, creating a mini aviation economic development site. We wanted some commercial activities in our community. Mixed use, we would label it now. Aerotropolis Neither Don nor I had enough money, connections, or money to build our dream community around an airport; we still don't. However, our idea--on a somewhat grander scale, I'll admit--is now labeled as an aerotropolis. 'Aerotropolis' is a portmanteau word coined by Dr. John Kasarda of UNC Chapel Hill meaning a city designed around an airport. Not a small, one runway airpark, but a huge, multi-runway international commercial airport. We aren't talking aerohamlet here, but aerotropolis! Origins of cities Traditionally, transportation options have defined cities. In the same way that cities originally grew up around navigable rivers and good harbors, and then around the confluence of canals, railroads, and highways, cities are now growing around airports. Huge new warehouses, office buildings, assembly plants, conference centers, hotels, restaurants, apartment complexes and generic residential neighborhoods are all being build alongside major airports and the major highways connecting them to their cities. This is happening all around the world, not just in Dubai. Saudi Arabia has built six new cities in the desert. China is building 100 within the next decade. Panama is building one right now. The South Koreans are currently building one on a man-made island the size of downtown Boston just offshore of Incheon. This one is totally privately financed in much the same way as Romer's Charter Cities concept. India is also entering the privately-financed aerotropolis market with at least four either built or under construction; the government there favors a public-private partnership. The global competition These aerotropolises (aerotropoli?) are enormous concentrations of commercial value-creation and wealth, but as Dr. Romer points out, they are worth a great deal more than they cost to build. They are the new front lines of economic competition around the world, and countries are using them as economic weapons - hich is very smart. The winner in the race to become the new global super-power isn't going to be the nation with the most nuclear weapons or the most killer submarines; the winner will be the one with the most vibrant economy that attracts world class talent from around the world. The United States is not winning this race; quite the opposite, actually; we seem to be driving away world class talent. If you fly commercially anywhere else in the world, you'll see how. The US War On Terror has driven down the number of foreign students earning undergraduate and graduate degrees for the first time since Nixon, and we now see more US students going abroad for their post-secondary education. This does not bode well for future US preeminence in the global economy. The value of air freight Over the past thirty years or so the value of global air freight has gone up about 1,400% while the global GDP has gone up only 154%. This indicates that a lot of freight that used to go by rail or truck or ship is now going by air, and that there is a lot more freight than there used to be. Interestingly, some 40% of goods (by value) go by air freight worldwide, not rail, not truck, not ship - but by air. That is a HUGE number. Here in the US we can look at the increasing size of both FedEx and UPS (with a combined fleet of over a thousand aircraft), see the reality of the increasing economic utility of air freight. And if it is true here, as it clearly is, then it is also true in Europe and Asia. Air transportation is the future. Aerotropolis, where? You may be wondering where you can find an aerotropolis. The original Ur aerotropolis is the FedEx hub in Memphis, but take a look at Dallas-Ft. Worth, Dulles International, Schipol Airport (the Netherlands), and Chicago O'Hare--not to mention Dubai, Incheon, Doha, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Guangzhou, and yes, Panatropolis (there is a fun YouTube on Panatroplis (here). But not London's Heathrow, and not Boston's Logan - there isn't enough land around those airports for expansion and development. That's a key point. Without enough land to expand into, businesses are forced to go elsewhere, taking their jobs and tax base with them. The older airports were built for much lower passenger traffic levels and built much closer to the city than today. The La Guardias, Heatherows, San Francisco Internationals, SeaTacs, and Le Bourgets, while relatively convenient to the older downtown city cores, are not contenders. They are too small, with insufficient available land for expansion; most of these US airports don't even have access from the city except via jammed surface roads (a new aerotropolis has a rail link to its city). While these older airports are useful as they are, they cannot make it to the aerotropolis stage. Refusal to see and understand this is a refusal to meet the future. Build it and they will come! Maybe. These new cities are not just built around the airport, as crucial and central as the airport is. They are also located near rail hubs and highway interchanges, greatly facilitating the rapid and efficient movement of goods and people through the regional market served by the airport. This outpouring of goods and people, this transportation nexus and regional market - a sink for goods and services as well as a source of them, has a large impact on the economic development of the area. In short, there has to be an economic reason for the airport to be there. There has to be a There there. Building an aerotropolis in a cornfield is not a good idea. “Build it and they will come” is a line from a movie, not an economics text. We need destinations, places with vibrant, growing economies. These places will naturally form an aerotropolis if they can find the funding for the airport and sufficient surrounding land - several hundred square kilometers—which implies a great deal of political will. Harbinger of what? Conversely, the lack of an aerotropolis in the region may well be the harbinger of a future as an economic backwater. Boston, for example, is falling behind other cities in terms of air traffic demand. They used to be 12th in the world, but now don't even make the top 50. Holding steady in a world of growing competitors is a losing proposition. To be competitive in the global economy, a city must be efficiently connected to that global economy as well as its regional economy and the most effective way of forming that connection currently is through the aerotropolis. It is a delicate balance; close enough to a real destination to make economic sense for the airport to begin with, but far enough away to allow for extensive expansion. A good aerotropolis is more like a sister city (think Minneapolis-St. Paul) or an edge city (Bellevue to Seattle or Alexandria to Washington DC), really, than an extension of the existing city. In short, the economic center of gravity is shifting from the city core to the aerotropolis. The business of business The aerotropolis is all about business. It's not just air freight. it's not just passenger traffic. There are factories and warehouses adjacent to airports to better serve their customers, true. There are airlines maintenance facilities and passenger terminals, true. But the most surprising thing to me was to find that some companies locate a headquarters next door to a major international airport for the ease of transportation of their executives, their customers, and their suppliers. For some, it even makes it easy to import workers. Large international airports allow for rapid movement of people and goods, and when combined with a powerful fiber-optic system for the rapid movement of information we get a new center of business and industry. The 1980s and '90s showed us the power of moving bits. But business doesn't depend on just information. Goods and people have to move, too - along with massive amounts of information - and this new idea of building a planned city around a large international airport enables all of that movement to happen faster than ever before. For firms that are globally competitive, that speed is not good; it is essential and they will go to where they can get it. They have no choice, really. Planning It surprised me to find that the aerotropolis was not originally purpose designed, though there is a great deal of planning that does into the ones being created currently. The first ones just sort of grew organically. The ones currently in construction, however, are very well planned. All the infrastructure works together immediately with no waste. Freight flows efficiently in and out without the delays that old and poorly maintained infrastructure creates. A traveler can arrive at the airport, catch the train at the terminal to the city center, and walk a block to his hotel, stay next door to the convention center where his conference is held, do business with any number of international banks, have a meal in fine restaurants, catch the train back to the airport, and fly back home without a problem. This is the target. This is the trend. There is no reason for people to do business in places where the infrastructure isn't up to the global standard. This is our future. Or, rather, it is the future for some of us. The developing countries have taken note of the trends and are spending their infrastructure money carefully. They are also reaping huge dividends. It remains to be seen if the developed nations can assemble the political will to create similar infrastructure. A new hope The game is not over, obviously. There are so many ways that the US and the EU could move back into the lead in the development of world-class business infrastructure. Nor have the current crop of aerotropolises encompassed everything a world-class aerotropolis should be. For example, so far as I'm aware, not one is making provisions for sub-orbital flights. Worse, I haven't seen anything that caters to the needs of existing business aviation - us. Check out the aerotropolis development near Incheon. Look at it using Google Earth. See all those business jets? Me neither. Not a single one. For whatever reason, we are seeing zero provisions for business aviation. This, I think, is a mistake. Moreover, we are looking at a new kind of air cargo service in the near future, and I'm not talking about aerospacecraft here. We are near the inflection point in the resurgence of lighter-than-aircraft. As with heavier-than-aircraft, the industry will build relatively small (if 200 metric tons of cargo can be called “small”) and build larger as their initial models show some success in the market. These airships fill a gap between the cost/speed of jet aircraft and ships. There is a definite niche for them and we will see more of them over the coming years. And there have been no provisions made for them either. So, all of you brash young aerotropolis designers take heed. Back to the future This new form of the city is a response to transportation technology, true, but it is also an expression our willingness and ability to function together around the world in a constructive way. The aerotropolis is not a local thing, nor even a regional thing. It's a global thing. The aerotropolis, by facilitating a global economy, is also facilitating a global culture. It's early innings still, but the potential is marvelous to see! Terry Drinkard is currently consulting on an aviation start-up. His interests and desire are being involved in cool developments around airplanes and in the aviation industry. Usually working as a contract heavy structures engineer, he has held positions with Boeing and Gulfstream Aerospace and has years of experience in the MRO world. Terry’s areas of specialty are aircraft design, development, manufacturing, maintenance, and modification; lean manufacturing; Six-sigma; worker-directed teams; project management; organization development and start-ups. Terry welcomes your comments, questions or feedback. You may contact him via terry.drinkard@blueskynews.aero Other recent articles by Terry Drinkard:
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