Regional Air Mobility: Why we don’t plan to operate flights under 20km

Post by Jabbles » Mon, Jul 27, 2020, 8:46 PM UTC

praveen9920 wrote: post #38

Jabbles wrote: post #35

I would have thought any new transport technology would be heavily automated - from a brief look these require 1 pilot per 4 passengers. Not that it would be easy, I'm just surprised something so ambitious doesn't also include automation. At first glance I would have thought automating a small plane would be easier than automating a car - for one thing there are fewer things to crash into.

One word: compliance. FAA has lot of restrictions to allow a planes to fly with pilot in it. Imagine convincing them that without pilot.

Post by manquer » Wed, Jul 29, 2020, 6:10 AM UTC

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #313

TylerE wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would have to be onerous regulation. The cost difference between new and used is truly immense. A new Cessna 172 starts at around $400,000, and that's before you start checking off things on the options list. Used can be as low as $20,000 for examples for the 1960s. If you thought depreciation on luxury cars was bad... The GA system is already frankly dieing due to ever increasing costs. Your suggestion would ju…

I was working on my Private Pilot license in the mid-90's. I quit just around 40 hours with my only remaining required training maneuver being a Night cross country. I quit for pretty much the reasons you give: while I could have afforded to finish my license, I realized owning my own airplane would have been prohibitive. Sure, I could get a Cessna 152 for around $20k at the time, but then hangar fees, maintenance, i…