> the same should apply to an aviation world which treats aircraft as they are: cars in three dimensions rather than two.
If you think an aircraft is a car with extra dimensions of travel then you've trivialized flight. Airplanes have gotten more complex over the past 50 years, and you're not going to get away abstracting any of it comfortably. The red tape exists because flying is hard, expensive and extraordinarily risky.
Junior aviators shouldn't be getting into planes they cannot operate themselves. It's like trying to claim it's safe putting a person without a drivers license behind the wheel of a self-driving car. You might feel that your life or the major-league pitchers' isn't worth enough for it to matter, but there's at least 1 or 2 important people on the overbooked 747 you crashed into due to crosswinds on the runway or after ignoring ATCs demands to "go around".
I'm trivializing small aircraft flight, because it's a personal transport like a car. And the reason I'm doing so is that it seems very technically possible to safely control and simplify the amateur/small craft experience. So, my question would be, with modern technology, why should flying be hard?
I'm not suggesting this for a 747. Let's compare it to a private driver's license versus a CDL. Of course we shouldn't let any schlub to pilot a plane, just like we (ostensibly) require a person to take driver's training and pass a test prior to getting behind the wheel.
In my admittedly ignorant mind, we could automate and make safe the entire process. The OP prevents a device with redundant and safety systems making it nearly impossible to execute dangerous maneuvers, and balance weight and weather concerns. Current computing could automate air traffic control at small airfields where these small planes would fly. The airspace carved out for these craft could be enforced by the fly-by-wire system on the plane. And so on.
My point is, with modern tech, it would possibly be feasible to trivialize personal flying.
If you think an aircraft is a car with extra dimensions of travel then you've trivialized flight. Airplanes have gotten more complex over the past 50 years, and you're not going to get away abstracting any of it comfortably. The red tape exists because flying is hard, expensive and extraordinarily risky.
Junior aviators shouldn't be getting into planes they cannot operate themselves. It's like trying to claim it's safe putting a person without a drivers license behind the wheel of a self-driving car. You might feel that your life or the major-league pitchers' isn't worth enough for it to matter, but there's at least 1 or 2 important people on the overbooked 747 you crashed into due to crosswinds on the runway or after ignoring ATCs demands to "go around".