....in the USA instead of 400,000 or so:

There would be GA airports *everywhere*. They would be like beehives on the
day before Thanksgiving.

You could rent a T hangar for less than the cost of a 1 br apartment.

The accident rate would be about the same but the fatal accident rate would
be lower due to modern, more crashworthy designs.

You'd give the engine in your airplane about as much thought as you do the
one in your car. The idea of sending oil samples off for analysis at each
change would seem absurd.

Your new "family" airplane would be air conditioned. It would have a headup
synthetic vision/HITS display, emergency autoland capability, real time data
link weather and a CD/DVD player.

You'd have a second, "fun" airplane.

40-year old airplanes would all be junkers or lovingly restored classics.

Vacuum pumps would be deep in landfills.

Air traffic control would automated for most functions.

Regulation enforcement officers would be flying around, watching and
listening, but federal enforcement actions would be more uniform and fair
due to more lawyers and politicians getting busted and raising hell.

Frogs could dance and the Cubs would win the World Series.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM