Definition
A civil airplane used for purposes other than scheduled airline service or military operations. The category covers privately owned aircraft, flight training airplanes, business and corporate aircraft, agricultural and utility airplanes, and most light single- and multi-engine piston aircraft.
Plain English
Any civilian airplane that isn't an airliner or a military plane. Most small training and personal-use airplanes fall into this group.
Context Anchor
Seen in flight training material when the FAA is describing how typical non-airline airplanes behave during maneuvers such as steep turns.
Derivation
General aviation' came into use after World War II to describe all civil flying that wasn't scheduled airline service. 'General' here means 'covering everything else' — the broad category left over once airlines and the military are set aside.
Why Pilots Care
Most student and private pilots fly these aircraft, so the procedures in the handbook directly apply to the planes they actually operate.
Intuition Check
General does not mean “vague” or “basic” here. In aviation, general aviation means the broad category of civil flying outside scheduled airlines and the military; airplane means a fixed-wing aircraft, not a helicopter.
Example Sentence 1
The steep turn techniques described in this chapter apply to most general aviation airplanes a student will train in.
Example Sentence 2
Many owners operate their general aviation airplane for weekend cross-country trips.