Number of aircraft << number of provate automobiles. Furthermore, pilots of aircraft are generally assumed to have some basic level of competence before being allowed to fly on their own. For cars, I believe the primary qualifications are "use turn signals", "don't hit stuff", and "be 16+ years of age".
Manually driven ground cars are, generally, speaking, restricted in their operating environment and failure modes, even the most spectacular ones, are similarly generally restricted to that environment.
And speaking of failure modes, the majority of failure modes for automobiles when operating do not result in a crash. Your engine gives out, you can usually get to the side of the road. Your wheel goes flat, you can usually get to the side of the road. Your transmission fails, you can usually get to the side of the road. Failure modes for an air vehicle tend to be slightly more dramatic.
And, to finish with a bit of snarkiness, consider the following phrase: "Your aircar, made by the fine people at Toyota."
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james_davis_nicoll) wrote2010-07-05 07:11 pm
Re: Why so serious?
Manually driven ground cars are, generally, speaking, restricted in their operating environment and failure modes, even the most spectacular ones, are similarly generally restricted to that environment.
And speaking of failure modes, the majority of failure modes for automobiles when operating do not result in a crash. Your engine gives out, you can usually get to the side of the road. Your wheel goes flat, you can usually get to the side of the road. Your transmission fails, you can usually get to the side of the road. Failure modes for an air vehicle tend to be slightly more dramatic.
And, to finish with a bit of snarkiness, consider the following phrase: "Your aircar, made by the fine people at Toyota."