On Jun 13, 1:20*pm, Michael wrote:
On Jun 13, 1:41*pm, Le Chaud Lapin wrote:

Some key features of PAVs a

150-200 mph car that flies above gridlock without traffic delays
Quiet, safe, comfortable and reliable
Simplified operation akin to driving a car
As affordable as travel by car or airliner
Near all-weather, on-demand travel enabled by synthetic vision
Highly fuel efficient and able to use alternative fuels
Up to 800 mile range
Short runway use--Walk to grandma's from small residential airfields

What would you call this?

A pipe dream.

You cavalierly dismiss the argument that the FAA is what keeps new
technology out of the skies and causes astronomical parts cost, and
that dismissal is unwarranted. *Never confuse the public relations
face of the FAA with the rank and file at the FSDO/MIDO. *Never forget
that regardless of what tests your design passed, it must still be
approved by an engineer who couldn't make it in industry and hasn't
learned anything new (technically) in decades. *Nothing the top level
people in the FAA do will change that.

The reason you are seeing the LSA's showing some significant
innovation is simply because they need not go through FAA approval -
they are built to an ASTM consensus standard. *Honestly, that's how
all non-commercial use aircraft should be built - but I doubt you will
ever see that sort of change.

So basically what you're saying is that there are some people in FAA
who want something like a PAV, but when it comes times for approval,
"Ralph" in FSDO/MIDO puts up a brick wall for whatever reason.

I think this is one of the reasons that NASA and other government
organizations have begun to sponsor challenges like CAFE/PAV, so that
innovation can reclaim first priority.

I also think that if someone were to build a PAV that satisfied all
the criteria outlined on the CAFE site, it would be very hard for
anyone at the FAA to stop it. The pressure to act objectively and
responsibly would simply be too great.

-Le Chaud Lapin-