I am an old man, I have been in an out of aviation most of my life. When Boeing came up with this Go-Fly prize for VTOL personal aircraft, how could i refuse? Using all my engineering and homebuilt aviation expertise i came up with a vehicle that was safe, inexpensive and guaranteed to fly, with 1 hour range. Not bad looking either.You can build it in your garage.
10 Winners were announced on the 14th, most of them were cherry picked colleges. The rest were who knows where they come from, science fiction looking devices that no way can fly for 20 minutes , with 10 minute reserve. More glitz then function. When selecting these submissions, Go-Fly didnt follow their own rules.
What ticks me off is there were no or next to no older aviation people considered to win. On a point system, I think i had more points then all of the selected winners. Does the established airccaft community know about this injustice. Shouldnt winning depend on the merit rather then the galmour of a design. I am not against young people participating, but winning should be decided on by how credable the design is. The old guys working in their garage making something magical are excluded from this competition.
EAA is one of the sponsors of the competition. I doubt if any one of us will be allowed to win anything.
Some one please tell me that i am wrong.
Jeff
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