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XWing Wants to Make Autonomous GA Aircraft
A Bay-area startup wants to make your Cessna 172 autonomous. XWing says it has created "plug and play" software that can make most light aircraft fly autonomously. The technology will revolve around "sensing, reasoning and control." By eliminating pilots more people will be attracted to aircraft ownership and that will increase demand for small planes. The higher volumes will reduce production costs and make GA aircraft more affordable, Piette theorizes. (www.avweb.com) Más...
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If I had ten bucks for every company that’s been going to change GA, make it available to the masses and make it cheaper, I could take next week off from my GA job. The cheaper part is always an interesting proposition. If it occurs at all, it often means a 200k airplane instead of a 400k airplane. That is cheaper, but it will never return GA to the hey days of the 60s and 70s or get the masses out to the local GA airport. Every plane made now has to have all the latest wizz-bang technology. Which is great but definitely not cheap. For example, I know of a Cessna 400 which had a localizer issue with one of its radios that was troubleshot to a box under the floor. Said box is also involved with a lot of other things and Garmin does not allow field repairs. The owner needed his plane and chose to get an exchange unit from Garmin for the Average Joe price of $13,000. An old KX155 could have been fixed on the bench that day for a few hundred bucks max and the functionality of the localizer would be identical in both cases.
Guess he really needed to go, a flat rate repair at Garmin for a GIA 63W would have been about $1,250 a little less for the GIA 63.
As a pilot, my acceptance formula for autonomous aircraft is different from the majority of people. I would be more than just along for the ride if things went to hell. That said, I can see more people getting into GA piloting, at least on the pinch hitter level, to feel better about using this type of aircraft.
"The higher volumes will reduce production costs and make GA aircraft more affordable"
GA airplane high cost is not about production volume, it's about the manufactures covering themselves for the millions of ^%$#*$$ liability lawsuits that are awarded against them.
GA airplane high cost is not about production volume, it's about the manufactures covering themselves for the millions of ^%$#*$$ liability lawsuits that are awarded against them.
