I'd like to wait and see what the real fall out is going to be. So far what I see is a lot of folks discussing doomsday without any real proof. It makes no sense to me to change all of the launch systems we have in the USA when none of these big planes (Icon 2, DP's new TD) are in existence yet. I can see being prepared and all but this is a major undertaking. Plus why invest in these fixes before any of these Uber planes are in existence to use as examples or proof of concept? So far we have a few proposed solutions looking for a problem.
What's the deal? 2 American designed Uber planes are on the horizon and folks are all quaking in their boots. Will the extra pull of these planes on the winch when added to the pull of gravity of the moon cause sea levels to rise and all of our ocean front homes will fall into the sea? It seems folks do not want to invest in winch technology to launch these Uber planes to their potential for fear they will put the dinky planes they already have at a disadvantage. They will rather invest in limiting the winches so that the big planes will not get the advantage on launch and folks can keep flying the dinky planes they have. That is until they see the efficiencies in flight of the big planes then everyone will join the bandwagon. Then they will all complain about weak winches. Round and round it goes. In the end no matter which way you go the good fliers will make it work. In 30 years one of us will be in the same discussion and we will be able to keep Chuck's memory alive by saying "I did that 30 years ago and it didn't work". Mark Miller ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping