The Best Days Of Aviation Are Behind Us

All of those things are true, but there are things everywhere you look. The technology that we possess in the form of high-powered, low-cost computerized devices, sensors and displays is the stuff of our previous wildest dreams. With full glass cockpits, sophisticated digital autopilots, computerized angle-of-attack displays and solid-state attitude and heading reference sensors all available at prices that make it hard to say "no," it's impossible not to be excited about what technology has done to make our flying safer and, in many ways, more enjoyable, too. 

The risk, however, is the idea that our planes are all that they're going to ever be. It's simply not so, and even a cursory look at the arc of aviation will show that. Aircraft will continue to change---the Cirrus SR22 has transformed light general aviation in a number of ways. Think glass panels. Think whole-airplane parachutes. Think carbon-fiber construction. 

And more and potentially bigger changes are likely to come. It's likely that we'll see the most profound one, the wide availability of electric or hybrid propulsion, perhaps in the form of multi-propeller or even tiltrotor aircraft, within the next decade.