Free flight

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James Fallows wrote an interesting book a decade ago called Free Flight. Part of the book covered the dismal state of general aviation, resulting from a death spiral in which product liability suits played a prominent role. The rest of the book is about attempts to revive the industry. So, yes, this is about a stagnant industry that has invested little in engineering over the last 50 years or so. Most general aviation aircraft have a lot in common with cars in Cuba. With that context, I took some of the comments in the article as being directed not at the conservatism not of manufacturers, but of owners doing retrofits and experimental plane builders.

…so (I hope) has some emotional resonance, because business air travel is an abusive experience. I started following James Fallows after I heard him on NPR talking about "Free Flight", a book I recommend even though it wasn't particularly predictive. "Free Flight" is a book about the Cirrus SR-20 and the Eclipse E500; the former is a short-hop prop plane with advanced navigation and a whole-plane parachute, the second is an ultra-efficient jet the size of an SUV. Both are trying to establish an "air taxi" market for short-hop flights between underused airports. I love the idea of being able to drive to a tiny airport, walk up to a counter, show my ID, go right out to a small waiting airplane, and being in the air 5 minutes later. That somewhat interesting software is being used to price the legs ($300-$1200 now, 1-2 orders of magnitude bel…