AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2019 - 82

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INNOVATIONS

passenger operations. Delivery operations
will give air traffic control, manufacturers, and regulators a chance to understand
fleet operations, which will lead to more
acceptance of the notion of passengercarrying flights, he said.

YESTERDAY, TODAY,
AND TOMORROW

Innovations that never came
B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N

BURT RUTAN

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BURT RUTAN REGARDS the last few decades
of general aviation development as "pretty
damn disappointing."
His wife's 1965 Piper Cherokee 180 is
more than a half-century old, yet its speed,
fuel economy, and engine technology are
comparable to current GA aircraft-and he
says that shows a pitiful lack of innovation.
In the late 1990s, Rutan thought GA
was on the cusp of major advancements.
Jet engine pioneer Sam Williams planned a
family of low-cost, high-efficiency turbine
engines, and Toyota had certified a liquidcooled aircraft engine and flight tested it in
a fast, efficient, and quiet four-seat aircraft.
"I thought there would be competition
that would drive costs down to an absolute
minimum and push speed to the technological maximum," he said. "I'm just shocked

"I predicted there
would be competitive
spacelines in multiple
countries by now...
I wish I had a more
successful crystal ball."
82 | AOPA PILOT May 2019

that somebody didn't take the research that
had already been done and build a modern
general aviation airplane."
Neither the Williams small engines nor
Toyota engines ever went into production,
and the airplane Rutan considered his very
best work in GA-the Boomerang-was
rejected by investors who considered it too
radical for the commercial market. Rutan,
75, said he's still hopeful someone will recognize the asymmetrical design's inherent
safety benefits.
"When you have a breakthrough, before
it's seen as a breakthrough it's regarded as
nonsense," he said. "People look at [the
Boomerang] and consider it nonsense. But
it could be the safest general aviation airplane, by far."
Rutan is currently working on his
forty-seventh research airplane, the oneoff SkiGull, an ultra-long-range, two-seat,
Rotax-powered amphibian he's making "to
explore the world."
"It's been a lot more difficult to develop
than I thought it would be," he said. "By the
end of the summer I'll know whether it's
been successful."

CHANGING THE FACE
OF FLYING

Tomorrow's pilots will look
different from today's
B Y I A N J. T W O M B LY

BARRINGTON
IRVING

P&E

LET'S FACE FACTS. For the past 80 years,
pilots in the United States have been primarily male and primarily white. The future
recreational pilots, professional pilots,
maintainers, engineers, and other associated professionals must come from a much
wider demographic and socioeconomic
cross-section.

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2019