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Old 01-07-2013, 03:00 PM   #13
Timpo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GabAlmighty View Post
And do you know how expensive it costs for an airplanes auto pilot setup? Just to go RVSM up north is a $250,000 retro fit... And that's only to get within 1000' of other aircraft.

I can see something like they have in I Robot where you have certain dedicated thoroughfares where the car "locks" itself onto a sort of track and you can enter/exit at certain points.
Ok you're fucking idiot.

Airplanes have to go through air law...get approved by FAA, Transport Canada, etc.
It's not like cars where you can pretty much invent whatever you want. This is why cars get advanced so fast.

This is the primary reason why Cessna, Piper and all the other small airplanes use engines from 1950s technology. They're all like lawnmower engine. It's not controlled by ECU.
You have to adjust mixture, carb heat, everything by yourself.

It would cost them couple million $ for each technology they want to get approved. (Fuel injection, automatic mixture, etc)

This is why Lycoming still sells "lawnmower technology" engines.
Otherwise they would have to sell it as a "non-certified" engine so that aircraft can be registered as "Experiment Aircraft"
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