What happens to affordability when we have to pay for ATC services??
What happens to affordability when we have to pay for ATC services??
Cheers,
Jerry
NC22375
65LA out of 07N Pennsylvania
Good Luck Stan!
I've been waiting for this development since I was 5 years old, that was 1948!
Joe
In a good old Minnesota blizzard? The automobile, no matter what you think of it is pretty much an all-weather vehicle and any putative replacement must also be all weather or its a step backwards.Originally Posted by Stan
Bill
Only when there are no more lawyers or liability laws will this be possible.
The country can't go one minute without an car accident happening somewhere. Even in perfect weather and on perfect roads. Consider how many are minor fender benders with no injuries. Now let's move that to the air. Even a minor bump is most likely going to end up with multiple fatalities. A BRS is not going to help at 100ft AGL. The people on the ground won't be impressed with the raining shrapnel either.
Lawyers have already made GA unfordable with old claims that were bordering on the absurd. Replacing the automobile = more planes = more inexperienced pilots = more liability cases.
Although I agree with this, does it have to be this way? When are the laws going to be made where people have to take responsibility for their own actions? Even today, how far would my lawsuit go if I drove my 1948 Chevy off an icy road ... and blamed chevy and Goodyear for making a car that can't handle all weather and the city, county and state for roads that collect ice. Yet this happens every day to 1948 Cessna, Beech, Piper, etc airplanes. (Note: I really don't own a 1948 Chevy; it's just an example)
Aviation does have a tendency to be Darwinistic, though. People that fly VFR into IFR conditions, run out of gas, CFIT (controlled flight into terrain or wires) showing off to their friends, etc. rarely hurt people on the ground. In fact sometimes it takes us days or even years to find them.
Cars won't be replaced anytime soon. Different missions require different vehicles. Although my airplane is at the house, I can't taxi/drive/fly it to the store for milk. ;ob....... You guys are great. Thanks.
[Although my airplane is at the house, I can't taxi/drive/fly it to the store for milk. ;ob....... You guys are great. Thanks.[/QUOTE]
Hi Ron, my Verticraft is designed to go to the store or any other place that you would normally drive, just like the old Jetson cartoon show. As I said before the auto will eventually become obsolete the only question is when.
Stan,
Do you really think that cars will "go away" and the "obvious" replacement will be something that flys? Here's a couple of "obvious" possibilities, surface transportation becomes all electric powered (or hydrogen) and we see more mass transportation systems replace today's system due in part to a much larger population, with lower investment costs and high economic efficiencies. Mass transportation being funded by private business, we are in a service economy, so i'm not advocating some govt run system. Or, maybe with all the advances in communication we will no longer need to leave our residence to buy anything we just order on-line and get local delivery right to our door. This is happening on a small scale already, check out on-line shopping growth over the past couple of years. My grandfather was born in 1886 and died in 1970, he could not imagine the Interstate system and airline transportation on the scale we have today. All this stuff happened as a result of needs driven by an industrial economy, we no longer have that driver we are driven by a service economy that has different needs and different solutions. I'm not trying to throw cold water on your Verticraft, but replacing all the cars with the "Jetsons" hovercraft is not "obvious". Have you spent anytime driving around a "Wal-Mart parking lot on a Tuesday when it's full of "seniors"? It's Russian roulette with SUV's, yes will have all kinds of electronic avoidance systems on-board, if people can actually afford them on a mass scale. The future always is full of possibilities and is certainly not clear or obvious, if it were, we would all be jumping on some stock market "opportunities".
Joe
Stan (and all): I love your thoughts and dreams. Where would we be without them? You need to hire someone to take your product from dream to reality. The Verticraft reminds me a lot of Dean Kamen; a heck of a lot of very intelligent, high-powered, high-finance companies (venture capitalists); and the Segway. Read either "Code Name: Ginger" or "Reinventing the Wheel" (same book, different title). I might even have an extra one to send you (or anyone for that matter). The Segway concept is really cool, but they forgot that we live in a world with a lot of regulations and a heck of a lot of inertia. For a product that was toted as revolutionizing everything we do is little more than a vacation novelty (cruising the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago or San Francisco Bay) and a good "walking" police vehicle.
Remember that the bicycle was not accepted for a half a century, either. Some even thought of them as the work of the devil ... people rode them on Sundays instead of going to church and how else could you balance on 2 points? Ironically, it was the cyclists that pushed for better roads ... that cars eventually claimed ownership of.
Hey Ron,
Good "Segway", don't forget the two bicycle repair guys (Wilbur & Orville) in Dayton that are the real "authors" of this website! Without them we might not anything to discuss related to flying.
Joe
And I'm sure Wilbur complained to Orville that if he kept spending so much time and money on that danged flying machine, they would go out of business. I believe this is regarded as the first discussion over the high cost of flying....
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