irlift component of strategic mobility. The remainder of the airlift component is provided by the aircraft and personnel of the Military Airlift Command, and by civilian aircraft and personnel committed to American airlift operations by other NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organizations) countries under the NATO Allied Precommitted Civil Aircraft Program (NAPCAP), where those airlift requirements involve NATO reinforcement (Cohoon, 1989).
The combined airlift capacity of the Military Airlift Command, the CARF, and the NAPCAP does not equal the maximum anticipated emergency airlift requirement for the U.S. (Cohoon, 1989). Thus, any development, such as the deregulation of the air transportation industry, which holds the potential to cause a deterioration in the nation's civilian aviation fleet, is a matter of national defense concern with respect to strategic mobility.
DEREGULATION OF THE AIR TRANSPORTATION
In an economic context, the goal facing the country with respect to air transportation is the provision of adequate and safe air transportation in an economically efficient manner. Until the late-1970s, the solution approach to this goal was the regulation by government of the air transportation industry. Subsequent to 1977, the solution approach shifted to deregulation.
The commercial airline industry in the U.S. received its start in the mid-1920s from the airmail contracts let by the federal government. Congress enacted the Kelly Air Mail Act in 1925. The first airmail contracts were let in 1926. Among the major American airlines which trace their beginnings to these airmail contracts are American Airlines, Eastern Airlines, Pan American Airways, and United Airlines (Moskowitz, Katz, and Levering, 1984).
From this start, the airline operators were able to gradually add passenger carrying routes and, later, freight carrying operations, to supplement mail delivery. Several airline companies flourished in the ...