Avionics News December 2022 - 17

Communicating, participating, supporting and
partnering with your local trade school has proven
to be an important source for new apprentices
into the aviation trades.
* WK74398 Standard Guide for Radio
Communication Systems Technician
Certification.
* WK74399 Standard Guide for Dependent
Navigation Systems Technician Certification.
* WK76222 Standard Guide for Software,
Configuration, and Database Management
Technician Endorsement.
While these standards are all essential, I want
to highlight a new standard this week from the
subcommittee F46.06 Autonomous and Electric Aircraft
Maintenance Personnel. This new standard is still a
" work task " at the time of this writing; however, it
should be published as a final standard at the time of
publication, WK71061 Standard Guide for Unmanned
Aircraft System Maintenance Technician Qualification.
The next generation of aircraft leverages advanced
technologies, electronics integration, and computer
controls unlike any aircraft before it. That is not to
say the independent technologies are revolutionary; on
the contrary, the technologies have evolved into the
newest, more-powerful, more-advanced capabilities.
The overall integration does, however, create the next
generation: revolutionary generation aircraft. This
new, newsworthy, highly technological flying machine
should be good for recruiting the next generation of
technicians.
Historically, we have only had a handful of major,
newsworthy, technologically driven advances in
aviation: The jet age of the late 1950s and early
1960s, and the space race of the 1960s and 1970s.
While each aircraft is more powerful, larger and
carries more payload, technologically, it has simply
been evolutionary. As such, there hasn't been a lot of
exciting new technologies to recruit the next generation
- until now.
For 10 years, from Feb. 20, 1962, with the launch
of John Glenn on the Mercury-Atlas 6 through Dec.
19, 1972, with the landing of Apollo 17, the space race
alongside the jet age of aviation were major catalysts
for this exciting field of aerospace.
Following the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 and
the huge growth of domestic airline travel, air travel
became commonplace and began to tarnish the luster of
the exciting field of aerospace. While we began to see
aviation taken for granted and the excitement starting
to fade, we introduced unparalleled instability in the
workplace. Since 1978, we have seen the rise and fall
of airlines with, according to Airlines for America, over
211 airlines filing bankruptcy since 1979.
To help with recruiting, this industry needs a shot
of excitement - an exciting disruptive technology that
will get the attention of a new generation. And that
excitement is AAM: advanced air mobility.
In the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
student guide, Advanced Air Mobility: What is AAM?,
NASA explains the continuum of these technologies
from the smallest " quadcopter " aircraft through larger,
Continued on page 39
avionics news * december 2022 17
Avionics News December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News December 2022
