The next 10 years will be very interesting times for general aviation, says Mark Moore, a researcher at NASA’s Langley Research Center, in Virginia. Last week, he gave two talks at the CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium in San Francisco, exploring new aviation technologies and transit systems. “I think we’re entering a golden era in aviation technology,” he told AVweb in an interview this week, from his office in Virginia. “When you look at the technology being developed for small autonomous vehicles, distributed electric power generation from the general aviation community, and advanced manufacturing processes, like additive manufacturing, that let you make prototypes and low-volume production much more cost-effectively — it’s pretty amazing what’s going to be possible.”
Moore added that the U.S., with its relatively weighty certification structure — even if and when the new Part 23 rules take effect — might not be the leader in implementing the new technologies. There’s a lot of interest in Australia and New Zealand, for example, he said, and they might be leading the way. He added, however, that he knows of about a dozen private companies, many of them very well-funded, that are working on aviation technologies they haven’t yet made public. Those companies, about half of them sited in Silicon Valley, may begin to unveil their designs over the next few years, he said. Moore also said NASA’s Sceptor project, which is replacing the wing on a Tecnam twin with a new wing and a series of small electric-powered propellers, is moving along on schedule and is expected to start flight tests in 2018.
