Larry Dighera wrote:
My point is, why is does the FAA feel it is necessary to provide
separate experimental licensing criteria between "Experimental -
Amateur Built" and other experimentals?

The answer to that requires going through some history. Too much for me to
recount here - even if I knew it all (and I don't). Amateur builders today
appear to have a lot to thank for the tireless work of people like the
"Beaverton Outlaws" of Oregon. Quoting from Ron Wanttaja's book "Kit
Airplane Construction": "By World War II, homebuilt aircraft had been
banned in every state of the Union. Except Oregon."

Here's a very nice article titled "The Resistance" about how some of the
Oregonian "rebels" were critical in getting that category into the
regulations:

http://www.airspacemag.com/issues/20...on_outlaws.php

What are the pertinent licensing differences between "Experimental -
Amateur Built" and those of the appropriate experimental type of say
SpaceshipOne built by Scaled Composites commissioned by Branson?

If the experimental is created in furtherance of a business it is supposed
to be registered under a different experimental category. It may also have
different operating limitations. Scaled Composites almost certainly doesn't
attempt to register its aircraft under the amateur built category.


"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to
the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is
eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the
consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
---- John Philpot Curran
From http://www.bartleby.com/73/1054.html