With general aviation challenged on a number of fronts, a leading pilots association has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to promote the industry and showcase its significance.

Many people don't understand the role general aviation plays every day in communities and in the economy, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association said.

It provides services such as law enforcement, medical help and emergency services and boosts business for local communities, it said.

"People are very misinformed to just what general aviation is," said AOPA spokesman Andrew Broom.

Called General Aviation Serves America, the advocacy campaign will use people who use general aviation to tell their stories about what it means to their communities and to their businesses, the group said.

"It's really putting a face to general aviation," Broom said.

Actor and pilot Harrison Ford has volunteered to help in the campaign. He is featured in a video and an ad.

The AOPA will use radio, television and print advertising and Web sources to get the word out.

The campaign comes at a critical time when general aviation is under pressure from legislators and regulators, the AOPA said.

"We call it one of the most serious sets of issues ever faced by general aviation," Broom said.

General aviation brings $150 billion into the U.S. economy annually and provides 1.2 million jobs, the group said.

The challenges put those numbers at risk, it said.

The Obama administration wants to change the way the Federal Aviation Administration is funded and implement direct user fees starting in October 2011, Broom said.

In addition, "onerous" security regulations, proposed reductions in the general fund contribution to the FAA and plans by some local governments wanting to replace airports with residential development could threaten the industry, Broom said.

And an increasingly negative public perception of general aviation as "jets for the rich" also harms the industry.

"So now we're embarking on one of the biggest campaigns ever taken on by AOPA," Broom said.

AOPA has committed $1.5 million to the campaign and is raising funds to expand it.