The Enduring Legacy of Aviation's Airman Certificates

The Same Airman Certificates: Not Everything Changes

Today I caught a glimpse of an old Temporary Airman Certificate that mustered up some aviation nostalgia in me. In case you need a refresher, upon passing a checkride, examiners will provide the students temporary airman certificates immediately so they can begin exercising their priveleges. Temporary airman certificates typically last up to 120 days or until the pilot receives the permanent credentials from the FAA.

The certificate was oddly familiar though. I looked over the sections of it and thought that it looks so close to the temporary certificates I have been issued. I snapped a picture for some review when I got home that day. Later that day I pulled out an old and expired temporary airman certificate and became surprised at what I had seen. I could not believe how close the old certificate from almost 70 years ago was to my most recently issued temporary cert.

After 70 years, the phrase "has been found to be properly qualified and hereby authorized in accordance with the conditions of issuance on the reverse of this certificate to exercise the priveleges of..." is verbatim between the old and new. How often do you find anything that stands the test of time like this?

Aviation History is Important

Modern aviation comes with frequently changing technology, regulations and mechanics. The several properties of air, pressure, temperature, lift, drag, gravity, etc. that we study all the time remain the same. This is such a cool concept. Look back 70 years ago and pilot were learning about stalls, lift generation and navigation.

There are many museums that capture the history of aviation. I highly suggest checking out several of them. Even better is finding a local aviation club and hearing the stories in person. Some of the earliest aviators are still around to tell stories of flying in a completely different time. These aviators flew in wars, or kept their airplanes in the barns and took off whenever they wanted. The early aviators tried new things and experimented to bring us many of the ideas we have implemented on modern aircraft.