how many people flying at any one time?

There was once an article in the Atlantic Monthly (I think it was then
called the Atlantic Monthly) entitled "There are XXX trees in Russia".

The writer dealt with the habit of journalists leaving blanks in their
copy, which researchers were later supposed to fill in. The point
being: how meaningful could a statistic be, if the writer didn't know
it to begin with?

The writer's favorite case involved the trees-in-Russia question.
Let's say it was Newsweek. A Newsweek researcher naturally called the
Russian embassy, which admitted it didn't have a clue. The researcher
then estimated the acres of forest in Russia, estimated how many trees
per acre, and multiplied the two figures. Newsweek published the
number.

The next week, the Russian embassy called up, pleased as punch, and
announced that it had the answer to the researcher's question: there
were exactly XXX trees in Russia.

(The source, of course, was the Newsweek article, a perfect example of
the referential nature of the "facts" we get in the news.)

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

Bob, reliable estimates of such things don't necessarily require
exhaustive
counts. Carefully designed sampling works, too.

It would be interesting to figure out how many people have flown, in total.
I just saw a figure that said the Boeing 747 has safely flown an amazing
number of people (half a billion?) over the years.

An easier one to determine would be how many certificated pilots there have
been since 1903. We always bandy about stats like "only .05% of the world
can fly" -- but does anyone really know that figure?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Bob Gardner" wrote in message news:QITSb.148342$Rc4.1191358@attbi_s54...
Do you report your annual hours flown to the government (or GAMA, for that
matter)?

Bob Gardner

"TaxSrv" wrote in message
...
"tracksterman" wrote:

I'm having trouble tracking down a statistic I'm after, thought you
knowledgable folks might be able to help. As the subject title says:
how many people are aloft in aeroplanes at any one time...?


If you want general aviation numbers, it should be easy to compute.
GAMA (www.generaviation.org) publishes stats on #'s and annual hours
of active aircraft. NTSB accident data (www.ntsb.gov) can be used to
derive the average # of occupants per aircraft, and by time of day if
needed.

Fred F.


Thats not the question he is asking - he wants to know how many people
are in the air at any one time and without qualifications as to GA or
otherwise.

I would probably guess that there is a couple of million in the air at
any one time and ten times that in terminals seeing them off and
arrive

Bob Gardner wrote:

Do you report your annual hours flown to the government (or GAMA, for that
matter)?

Every two years I report the number of hours I've flown in the last two years to
a representative of the FAA.

George Patterson
Love, n.: A form of temporary insanity afflicting the young. It is curable
either by marriage or by removal of the afflicted from the circumstances
under which he incurred the condition. It is sometimes fatal, but more
often to the physician than to the patient.

No one could possibly know with any degree of accuracy. If you read such a
statistic before it was simply a wild guess.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:iLWSb.193952$I06.2142132@attbi_s01...
| Bob, reliable estimates of such things don't necessarily require
| exhaustive
| counts. Carefully designed sampling works, too.
|
| It would be interesting to figure out how many people have flown, in
total.
| I just saw a figure that said the Boeing 747 has safely flown an amazing
| number of people (half a billion?) over the years.
|
| An easier one to determine would be how many certificated pilots there
have
| been since 1903. We always bandy about stats like "only .05% of the world
| can fly" -- but does anyone really know that figure?

Just about 67% of all statistics are made up out of thin air.

soo... if all those people are in the air.. is the earth suddenly that much
lighter??

BT

"Pete Jones" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 11:44:09 -0700, "Tom Sixkiller"
blathered:

Think, tracksterman, think! Where would these numbers come from? Do you
think that general aviation pilots report their passenger loads to Big
Brother? There is a remote possibility that someone could add up the
passenger manifests of the airliners in flight at a particular time and
report the total to Big Brother, but at what cost? And for what
benefit?

Bob Gardner

I think he means "How many aircraft are aloft at any one time"??

No, I mean 'how many people' - and it's a global figure I want rather
than a US one. Of course this would only ever be a (very!) approximate
number, but that's all I need - and it has been done before, because I
remember reading the figure a couple of years ago. Just having a
spectacular lack of success finding it online...

Pete
----
http://www.btinternet.com/~peteajones/

"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:FJZSb.2763$IF1.451@fed1read01...
soo... if all those people are in the air.. is the earth suddenly that
much
lighter??

No.

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:iLWSb.193952$I06.2142132@attbi_s01...
| Bob, reliable estimates of such things don't necessarily require
| exhaustive
| counts. Carefully designed sampling works, too.
|
| It would be interesting to figure out how many people have flown, in
total.
| I just saw a figure that said the Boeing 747 has safely flown an amazing
| number of people (half a billion?) over the years.
|
| An easier one to determine would be how many certificated pilots there
have
| been since 1903. We always bandy about stats like "only .05% of the
world
| can fly" -- but does anyone really know that figure?

Just about 67% of all statistics are made up out of thin air.

No, 67.8%,

"Jeb" wrote in message
om...
"Bob Gardner" wrote in message
news:QITSb.148342$Rc4.1191358@attbi_s54...
Do you report your annual hours flown to the government (or GAMA, for
that
matter)?

Bob Gardner

"TaxSrv" wrote in message
...
"tracksterman" wrote:

I'm having trouble tracking down a statistic I'm after, thought you
knowledgable folks might be able to help. As the subject title says:
how many people are aloft in aeroplanes at any one time...?


If you want general aviation numbers, it should be easy to compute.
GAMA (www.generaviation.org) publishes stats on #'s and annual hours
of active aircraft. NTSB accident data (www.ntsb.gov) can be used to
derive the average # of occupants per aircraft, and by time of day if
needed.

Fred F.


Thats not the question he is asking - he wants to know how many people
are in the air at any one time and without qualifications as to GA or
otherwise.

I would probably guess that there is a couple of million in the air at
any one time and ten times that in terminals seeing them off and
arrive

So, your guesstimate is that for every one person flying there is a
cummaltive 10 people in a terminal watching them depart or arrive. That, to
me, seems like an inflated estimate.

Earl G