General Aviation

General aviation includes any flight that is not military and does not fly on a regular schedule, ranging from a recreational flight in a hang glider to a non-scheduled cargo flight in a Boeing 747. The majority of flights on any day will fall into this category.
Because of the huge range of activities, it is difficult to cover general aviation with a simple description — general aviation may include business flights, private aviation, flight training, parachuting, gliding, air ambulance, crop dusting, charter flights, traffic reporting, police air patrols, forest fire flighting, and many other types of flying.
Each country regulates aviation differently, but typically, general aviation falls under several different types of regulations depending on whether it is private or commercial and on the type of equipment involved.
Many small aircraft manufacturers, including Cessna, Piper, Mooney, Cirrus Design, Raytheon, and others serve the general aviation market, with a focus on private aviation and flight training. The most important recent developments for small aircraft have been the introduction of advanced avionics (including GPS) that were formerly found only in large airliners, and the introduction of composite materials to make small aircraft lighter and faster