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The Coming Air Age
Lovejoy writes "Sixty years ago in The Atlantic Monthly, Igor Sikorsky wrote The Coming Air Age. "Any of us who are alive ten years after this Second World War is won will see and use hundreds of short-run helicopter bus services." He goes on to write about personal helicopters which fit in large garages and that helicopters that are easier to drive than cars, etc.. So, will personal flight ever be viable? Do wildly wrong predictions like this give futurists pause? I think they should."
... when we can have rocket belts?
Jouster
Personal flight won't be a reality until we figure out how to put skip-lines and double-yellows in mid-air to keep people in line :-)
--NBVB
from your driveway and blowing the neighbors garbage cans over, creating huge dustclouds and taking out a few powerlines on the way to work. that will make you popular with the neighbors!!!!
... Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed...
True enough. A helicopter mechanic (who may have been pulling my chain) once told me about a critical connector that he called a "Jesus bolt". Why? Because if that bolt lets loose, you're going to see Jesus.
Playing devil's advocate, though... if you're going to talk about gross structural failures, you have to admit that there will be similar problems with other aircraft. If a wing falls off of your Cessna, you're going to be just as pissed, aren't you? What's the likelihood of a rotor going away compared to a wing going kaput?
With that said, I think I'd prefer to be in a dead-stick Cessna, just as you would... but that's with today's helicopters. A liberal application of technology could go a long way toward fixing those shortcomings.
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
Hmmm. My personal suggestion is to replace your step three with this:
3. Beat her like she stole a package.
What is music when you despise all sound?
... and see how well she does ...
Just think of it as evolution in action.
In actuality, most FAA regs are to protect (a) people (and property) on the ground and (b) passengers. They don't really care much if a pilot kills himself (or herself -- although most of the female pilots I've known were a little less reckless than the males) as long as he doesn't hurt anyone else. (Unless, of course, it was a commercially built (vs homebuilt) aircraft at fault. And then they're still more concerned with the other folks who might get hurt by similar.)
-- Alastair