The Seeleys and SA board members did themselves proud for this year’s Sustainable Aviation Symposium. Your editor visited the grand ballroom in the San Francisco Bay Pullman Hotel the night before the meeting was to take place. All the tables, chairs and stage were in place, but the room was otherwise bare. Early next morning, your editor trudged downstairs again, to be met with an astonishing sight. At the back of the ballroom, a pair of exotic geometric shapes glowed in blue and green lighting. Somehow, a 50-foot wing and substantial streamlined shape had materialized overnight. Already, attendees were peering up at the extremely twisted tips of the wings and trying to analyze what they saw before them. Aspirational Geometries These elements comprise a pairing of what may be the two lowest-drag objects in aviaton. Their goemetic purity evoke those kind of aspirational feelings reportedly felt by attendees at the 1939 World’s Fair when they saw the Trylon and Perisphere …
Synergy: A Practical Lightplane for the New Century
At EAS V, Synergy Chief Operating Officer John Paul Noyes framed his presentation of the Synergy aircraft by showing a picture of a 1973 portable telephone, then comparing it to a current model. The clunky size, heft and limited utility of the former compared with its slim, feature-laden modern counterpart tells a story of intense design improvements, quantum increases in capabilities and far lower costs for a significantly better product – something usually anticipated in the history of modern products. Along with that historically comparative pairing, though, he showed pictures of a 1973 Cessna 182 and its Lycoming engine along with shots of modern examples of the two. Not much other than the paint scheme distinguishes today’s Skylane from its antecedent. Following Noyes’ outlook, it’s a bit disheartening to review Wikipedia’s specifications for 182s for the past 54 years. Little, other than the introduction of improved instruments and Omni-Vision, has changed. Although a great deal of this is due to …