Good afternoon. Can everyone see what I’ve got here? It’s the paper napkin that was on the lectern…I’m sure there are plenty more around the room. There’s nothing on it—it’s blank. Or is it?
The story goes that Herb Kelleher and two associates met in a bar in 1966 and sketched on a paper napkin the idea that would become today’s Southwest Airlines.
It was a triangular route structure, with Dallas at the apex, and San Antonio and Houston at the other corners. That triangle is now a great big web. Southwest now has more than 100 destinations, including international locations.
In 1981, the famous aircraft designer, Burt Rutan, his fighter pilot brother Dick, and their pilot friend Jeana Yeager, were having lunch at the airport in Mojave.
The crazy idea of flying around the world in a small plane, on one tank of gas came up. It wasn’t crazy to Burt—and he sketched his idea for the Voyager on the back of a napkin.
Five years later, Dick and Jeana became the first people to fly around the world, non-stop, no refueling done.
There’s something about this simple square of paper that welcomes bright people to set free their big ideas. And when that happens, the back of the napkin is no longer white space….it’s a window into the future.
It’s a solution to a challenge, and it can lead to immense opportunities.
We are on the verge of a future that needs more people sketching out their big ideas on the back of paper napkins….in notebooks, into iPads, onto whiteboards, or into the sand on the beach… We need big ideas to help us solve some big challenges in aerospace.
We have a drone industry that’s growing exponentially; air taxis arriving in just a few short years; automation technologies that could radically change how we fly commercially and in general aviation aircraft; and a commercial space industry that’s growing by leaps and bounds.
And it’s a pretty good bet there’s something new on the horizon that we haven’t even contemplated yet...
A big part of the FAA’s job is to integrate all of this innovation into our national airspace system. And we have to do all of this with a laser focus on safety, efficiency, and the environment.
And especially now, environment is one of the areas where we really need big ideas because the challenges are immense.
We’ve made incredible gains in efficiency and noise since the dawn of the Jet Age.
Many of us here can remember when airliners spouted emissions like black yarn—and you had to pause conversations as one flew over.
By comparison, today’s fleet is extremely quiet, and airliners have an average fuel efficiency of nearly 60 passenger miles per gallon, on par with a Toyota Prius.
But how do we get to that next quantum leap? We’re fighting extremely hard to deliver relatively small benefits when it comes to efficiency and noise.
That’s why we need new ideas, big ideas…. to help us get to significant benefits.
It’s doable. We saw it with this new generation of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.
A few years ago, when battery technology became practical for aircraft, we saw how designers created an entirely new design space to work in. They could put motors and propellers where they simply couldn’t before….
They came up with extremely quiet designs that at first, seemed like science fiction, but now, are on the verge of certification.
And that’s a lesson that applies across the board for all of the challenges we’re seeing in aerospace. Big ideas that solve aerospace challenges—safely—become big opportunities.
As an Agency, we want to be an enabler, not a roadblock.
We want to be a regulator that brings the ideas on the back of paper napkins to life, safely and effectively.
We want to help you solve challenges and create opportunities. A big part of my job is making sure that happens.
I’m betting there are ideas right here in this room that could help solve some pretty major challenges in aerospace. The aerospace industry welcomes your input…and there’s never been a better time to let those ideas take flight.
Thank you for inviting me.