Evan Carew wrote:
Section 8,

Interesting use of words there. In my experience, "the tragedy of the
commons" is common jargon for lawyers. I however, work in the computer
science field and am familiar with the Linux OS phenomenon. In that
case, an entire OS & suite of applications was created out of love.
Granted, the cost of such a creation is much lower than for aircraft
structural design, however, I'm guessing that most of us in this news
group have enough tools and materials to put together such reference
structures as we are talking about here.



I'm also a lover of Linux, and OS/2 before that. I am deeply inbedded
with the Open Source philosophy. I'm also building an airplane. The
difference here is that on Linux, a single person can design a file
system or a sound driver all by themselves, and it can be integrated
with the whole. You can't design a rudder and stick it on any ol'
airframe. An efficient aircraft has to be designed as a whole. Each
aircraft is a single set of compromises flying in formation, and for the
most part, you can't mix compromises.

The closest you'll get to an Open Source aircraft design is to create
something in its entirety and then present it to the community for them
to tell you what's wrong with it. After spending several thousand hours
on development, most people will push back at the criticism.

Don't be fooled. An Xplane model that says its a high-wing using XYZ
airfoil at position gamma is not a design. What type of rib? How is it
attached? What size is the spar attachment bolt? All the questions are
uniquely answered by a 'brazillion' other considerations, all of which
I, and probably yourself, are uniquely UNqualified to answer. I say the
latter because like yourself, I have a background in computer science
(and just enough aviation knowledge to know that I don't know enough).

--
This is by far the hardest lesson about freedom. It goes against
instinct, and morality, to just sit back and watch people make
mistakes. We want to help them, which means control them and their
decisions, but in doing so we actually hurt them (and ourselves)."