Flying dachshund
Member
Over the past two weeks since I've been looking into aircraft, I can't help but notice that there hasn't been any remarkable advances in the field for nearly four decades. Why? One needs only look to Occam's Razor to see that it's simply that nobody is thinking of anything new. Again, why? That boils down to the types of people who dominate the sport and industry. The people who can afford to buy an aircraft outright aren't likely to come up with any new tech, as it's been proven that well-heeled individuals are less creative than their blue collar counterparts. The second type of person is the engineer who designs the crafts, as an engineer is first and foremost an imitator, not an innovator. There is too much stagnation in the pool of flight, and it's up to the average Joe Schmoe to freshen it up. In two of the past three fields in which I took an interest, it wasn't a company or group of thinkers who made the major advances into the modern era, it was just average guys with too much time on their hands and vision in their head. That's what the aviation arena needs (other than to lose the image of being an elitist group far out of reach of the common man). Has anyone thought of holding an annual event, boasting a competition for the most innovative piece of hardware crafted by the hands of an average, low-end enthusiast? I get the impression most flyers are perfectly content being behind times, but there's still much room for improvement in areas that could help everyone, such as efficiency issues, and other areas that could help bring costs down, letting more folks into the sport. Just a thought.
