Peter wrote:
Are Garmin Avidyne etc avionics developed outside the US?
I should have specified airframes. You’re right, in avionics there’s been a revolution the last 20 years. I do think electric and hybrid will bring that to airframes and power plants as well, eventually. Only worried we might have regulated ourselves out of existence or the GA population has shrunk som much by then that there’s nothing left.
Personally, and thinking ahead to the future, I would lovet to one day see airframes that has a “virtual/silent copilot” that’s controllable from the ground or automated to be able to fly land it in case I get incapacitated. That would really make me feel safer when fly family and friends around.
Charlie wrote:
I suspect that the next big thing to come will be change in engine technologies, to the extent that I’d be surprised if anyone is really using Avgas in 20 years (10 years for the technology, 10 years for the adoption).
They were saying that when I was a student pilot, in 1997. Yet we’re still using avgas with no end in sight. I really wish we weren’t, it’s expensive and nasty.
LeSving wrote:
Innovation in GA is advancement in the ability to design and produce aircraft that people actually can afford to purchase and use
That’s absolutely right and why Van’s RVs are so successful, in combination with their performance. About 10,500 built and flown, more in the pipeline. Durability, 160 kts cruise for two, 2,000 fpm climb and aerobatics at a price for every man. Nothing like that was available a few decades ago.
Avgas is currently the same price as premium car fuel in my area, $4.25 per USG or exactly 1 Euro per liter. I just sold a plane that had the same Avgas in the tanks for 18 months and didn’t think twice about flying it. Good stuff.
What is currently generating new power plants that might work for GA is military UAV money. Two new ones for sure.
And a note touched upon earlier: Do we really want innovation? We as a community, as aviation buyers need to take a long hard look at ourselves and ask that very question. Time and time again innovative aircraft do come out, and we “stay away in droves” (as Sam Goldwyn used to say). There are tons of examples: P180 Avanti beats every single competitor in just about every parameter, yet buyers go for King Air’s that haven’t changed at all since the 60’s. Starships ground into pellets, Cessna TTX out of production, but the 182 and Bonanza still chugging, etc, etc.
Avantis are noisy and need longer runways than a King Air. Cessna TTX was eye wateringly expensive. Diesel engines are eye wateringly expensive. The Starship looked cool, but ultimately didn’t perform particularly well. Even Rutan suggested investing in a conventionally configured aircraft built out of composites wound over a mandrel i.e. they went for aesthetics over ‘hidden’ innovation.
I think consumers are almost surprisingly rational. We don’t want to be guinea pigs. We don’t want to buy a one-off aircraft or engine that has a good chance of becoming unsupported at a later date.
I think there is plenty of genuine innovation in the homebuilt sphere, where it’s that bit easier but equally importantly, if you have built an aircraft from plans you can guarantee it won’t be permanently grounded by a minor ding or breakdown of a critical component.
I would wager a good proportion of us might splurge on a cool gadget – I am writing this on a tiny computer called a Planet Gemini – but not risk a few years’ salary in the same way. We seem ready enough to buy shiny electronics and parachutes for our aircraft.
From the perspective of VFR flying, and apologies Adam, but I disagree with the premise of this thread. Two examples:
In the US, the near pervasiveness of 4G / LTE means that anyone with an iPad and Foreflight has access to real time weather radar, satellite images and TAF’s, Metars and Notams much of the time. In the sky. During the flight.
In UK, with it’s chaotic ATC, Pilot Aware and similar boxes have the potential to provide traffic awareness that should be available through Flight Following, but isn’t and probably never will be.
Both these innovations have emerged in the last 5 years and both, and in their respective countries, have the ability to transform the safety and utility of VFR flying.
And to add another: Uber has transformed the utility of small airports on both sides of the Atlantic, eliminating unreliable taxis and the temptation to use uninsured courtesy cars. OK, none of these ‘innovations’ concern the airframe or powerplant, but a roll of certified velcro, such that the iPad could be taped over the existing panel, would meet that objective as well. Not entirely facetious!
Aveling wrote:
In the sky. During the flight.
I’ve never found LTE or 4G to work in flight in the US above about 1500 feet. At least with a T-Mobile SIM.
Silvaire wrote:
[Vans RV] Nothing like that was available a few decades ago.
And in the factory built world, there is still nothing like it available.
I do have to wonder how much something like an RV6 would cost – the exact same design, but as a factory built. I’m guessing the only reason an RV is affordable is because the buyer puts in 1500-2000 man hours work for the love of it. A factory might be able to get what the homebuilder is doing down to 1200 hours, but that’s an awful lot of money in labour costs alone (and then the factory would want to also make a profit).
alioth wrote:
I’ve never found LTE or 4G to work in flight in the US above about 1500 feet. At least with a T-Mobile SIM.
Yes, that’s a fair point. My very first port of call when arriving in the country is an AT&T store, where you can get a 2Gb sim for $30 which lasts about a week in Foreflight. In the store, you can pay with a foreign credit card and get the techie to test it for you, which seems to be necessary 50% of the time. Budget 1Hr for this store visit!. You can also get a 6Gb card for $60 approx. AT&T’s service extends to GA altitudes and within 30 miles of habitation typically. On a recent 40 Hr trip I had coverage better than 50% of the time, 5-10k ft AGL, East and West including Great Plains. This using iPad air 2.
(Note: you have to visit a store each time because the Sims expire after 30 days, can’t be renewed with a foreign credit card, can’t be mail ordered and get permanently cancelled in a few months because they can’t connect in Europe). Unless someone knows better….
Avoid Sim’s from other carriers, even if they say “uses AT&T”, because they have all kinds of throttling. Same is true of UK’s ‘3’ sims, which have excellent ‘Feel at Home’ roaming performance on the ground, but only average in the air, and typically use T-Mobile. Actually 3 is the perfect solution for phoning home because the rate is the same as domestic UK.
alioth wrote:
I’m guessing the only reason an RV is affordable is because the buyer puts in 1500-2000 man hours work for the love of it.
Or he buys a used RV, plentiful in the market, for an affordable price. The market plus technology plus people have created wide availability of aircraft with performance + practicality unheard of a few decades ago. How that occurs now, and the non-involvement of factories, is part of the technology and not a problem… except where backward looking regulation makes it so.
