Whatever happened to property owners owning everything above their land? If a neighbor’s tree grows over your property, it’s your tree to chop down up to the property line.
“Whatever happened to property owners owning everything above their land? If a neighbor’s tree grows over your property, it’s your tree to chop down up to the property line.”
Ownership of airspace by private citizens has not been allowed for generations.
Congressional legislation of 1927 established the feds as supreme regulatory authority: not just over airspace, but over safety, commerce, pilot training/licensure, and the like. Civil aviation was transitioning from stunt/spectacle to travel/commerce; concern developed over the chaos that might ensue if the 48 states were allowed to set their own rules and standards. The legal precedent, as I recall, was that only sovereign nations could claim sovereignty over airspace.
It wasn’t all one-sided. Aircraft were supposed to be operated in a safe and prudent manner, and refrain from becoming a nuisance. This reciprocal arrangement began to degrade as the concept of common culture and behavior standards declined, and the population increased. The US population is now three times greater than it was in the 1920s; people are far more disagreeable and grumpy.
Private ownership took another hit in the 1950s, about the time the space race gained public attention. International agreement curtailed the claims of nations (some of which had already been voiced) to “the heavens” (that is, to an infinite altitude) above their territory. Someone pointed out that the earth spins on its axis once every 24 hours, so any nation of any size would eventually claim a sizable chunk of the universe. An upper limit of altitude for sovereign airspace was set.