Silvaire wrote:
You don’t ‘need’ law and rational legislature so much once you allow mixing of church and state.
Sorry, you’ll have to spell it out for me.
Silvaire wrote:
Lots of RVs being built regardless by people who don’t buy the message, and will create their future for themselves.
Well, that’s up to them. Obviously the picture is very different in the US.
With the way light aviation is presently being treated in the UK, I am not (as a person of fairly limited means) prepared to stake a financial outlay of ~£100k and a huge amount of my time and effort on something that is probably going to be legislated and taxed out of existence before I am ready to stop using it.
The situation may be different for people who have (a) more money, (b) more time, and (c) more appetite for risk than I do but I don’t recognise any aspect of ‘creating a future for oneself’ in this. What will happen in terms of tax and legislation will happen, regardless of my, or anyone else’s choice to build an RV or not.
Historically, I think the most effective tool for government to control people has been the combination of religion and government, “morals” preached by government to drive behavior directly, or as a rationalization for law that would otherwise make no sense to anybody with a brain. It’s very effective in that the population self regulates through social pressure, whether or not the result makes sense.. In many modern countries that combination has been repressed or made illegal, for reasons that should be self evident, so now government searches for a solution…. and it is religion masquerading as “science”, to repress people against their rational interest and enhance the power of the government employed ruling class 
When enough people share a set of values contrary to the message, government power in a democracy is regardless limited. More RVs being built and flown in E-AB Category is one little way (of many) in which that situation is created. And yes, the situation in that regard is not the same worldwide.
Silvaire wrote:
Historically, I think the most effective tool for government to control people has been the combination of religion and government, “morals” preached by government to drive behavior directly, or as a rationalization for law that would otherwise make no sense to anybody with a brain. It’s very effective in that the population self regulates through social pressure, whether or not the result makes sense.. In many modern countries that combination has been repressed or made illegal, so now government searches for a solution…. and it is religion masquerading as “science”
I fully agree.
However in this instance I make my choice (self-regulate) not through social pressure at all, but because of my own predictions about how the phenomenon you describe will continue to develop and how making the opposite choice is likely to lead to considerable financial loss. I hope that I am wrong, and that in 2050 I am wishing I’d built the RV and at the same time mulling over spending some of my pension on same. But I think it unlikely.
Hydrogen is not that stupid, but it must be cooled to liquid form in unpressurized containers. Perfectly doable with current technology, and liquid hydrogen has very high energy content per kg, much more than Avgas and Jet A. But it is light, also in liquid form, so it needs larger volumes, by a factor 3 or 4? for the same energy content. But maybe fuel cells are more efficient, so it’s not that bad after all.
But, all this hydrogen has to be produced, then cooled, stored, filled. Then stored in the aircraft at super low temp. In the end, it’s a question of cost.
Now this was cool. Electric helicopter with an array of tail rotors. The guy can fly as well. Electric motors with their instant torque should be perfect for helicopters I would think.
We all agree that the issue with electric aircraft is not the propulsion (to the contrary, it provides a lot more options) but the battery capacity. There is much talk in the automotive industry of “structural batteries”. But apparently it’s being looked at for other areas as well, including aviation.
Interesting. I wonder how they are supposed to handle thermal considerations, cooling/heating.
Yes, that’s one issue. But the “batteries” emitting heat while providing power could come in handy on leading edges.
Maybe @Airborne_Again could talk to his fellow professors there and enlighten us a bit more what they see happening on the aviation front..
