Have you ever wondered about the space above your head? I’m only talking about the blue bit that you see in the day, you know, the area that often has fluffy white clouds in it. That space is often unused, at least the lower few hundred feet is,anyway.
I put it forward, a question of all questions: Can you create a flying machine and still keep it under the ‘Frugal’ label? What if, with some hard work, some bits of tubular steel and a rather cranky engine, you could create a small, light weight, flying machine.
The rules, as is placed down by the following TSE benchmarks: (This is just theoretical. More thoughts bouncing around my head.)
1: The craft must go at least 1 metre from the ground. (Assuring it is bellow the FAA rules for testing.)
2: It can be powered by any means, but must be able to carry at least 100kg.
3: It can take-off at any distance down a strip, but must be able to safely stop in an emergency.
4: All controls, surfaces and connecting materials must comply with official safety guidelines.
5: The pilot must be braced in by means of a standard 5-point system.
With these rules in place, more sub-rules might be added in the future, they will form the base for a new initiative. As we strive to create new engineers, moving the thoughts of our young towards a creative occupation, we are tasked with so many issues.
The core issues that trap us include: finance, experience, tradition, attitude and connections. I want to challenge these! Why should we follow what the ‘so-called’ officials tell us. I am not saying that we should throw the rule books out, but we should at least think, once or twice, about how our ancestors thought, what were the ideas that first came to the Wright brothers? Did they simply say, we shall fly? We are living in a time that claims to have solved everything, there is nothing fresh to do, you are not unique…but this is wrong!
Just because the South Pole has been visited many times now, It doesn’t mean that we can’t add something new. The idea-focuses for 2017 are down to energy based issues. What new forms of energy can we discover? And with a new form that can let us explore space faster, cheaper and more efficiently, we are bound to have another age of the explorer in the not-so-distant future. Until then, we are going to have to follow our own dreams, ones that challenge the way the officials say it is done, what if your idea is years ahead, an idea that could shave a decade or more off the current fashions in its field.
2024 Update: This text was written in 2017, but still rings true. We should never be in a position that will jeapardise our own or other’s safety. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t ask questions. Investigating is what finds new things. Ideas sprout from the world when we look deeper and push the envelope. We are not in a world of ‘nothing’. There are opportunities that can be grabbed and utilised, you can be one of those people that digs up the ‘new’.
