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Comment by blantonl | Hacker News Reader

A lot of this is not a big surprise for those that are pilots. Aircraft design is has come a long way since the 40's.

It's very easy to get a plane off the around quickly that weighs less than 1300 pounds and has a 100 horsepower engine.

And for those that think getting your pilots license is insurmountable because of cost or medical issues, you can get a sport pilots license in as little as 20 hours of training with a drivers license as your medical to fly these aircraft. Limitations are one passenger, total weight of 1340 pounds, daytime good weather only, but you can still fly pretty much anywhere in the United States and Bahamas and to almost any airport, including Class B airspace and airports (read: largest airports in the country)

I'm pretty sure that I can get the light sport aircraft that I fly (Vashon Ranger) off the ground in a few hundred feet with full fuel (23 gallons) and a 170lb passenger on board and a decent headwind.

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The Super Cub is a design from the 40s (1949) that weighs less than 1300 pounds (930 empty) and has more than 100 horsepower (105 at introduction, 150 by 1954).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-18_Super_Cub

>you can get a sport pilots license in as little as 20 hours of training

This is not enough training to operate safely, in my opinion. Even in VFR conditions, I think it would be negligent for an instructor to turn a 20-hour pilot loose without further oversight. Even if a student pilot has flown solo by that point in their training, their instructor still needs to sign off on all cross-country flights. Entering Class B with 20 hours is out of the question in my view.

I also disagree that the Sport license meaningfully decreases the cost of general aviation. The largest expenses are fuel and aircraft rental fees or maintenance, neither of which are mitigated in the long term by a shorter training period.

It sounds like you are probably more experienced than I am, so maybe I'm wrong.

The Royal Australian Air Force was flying the DHC4 Caribou aa a light airlifter until the early 2000's. It was an amazing piece of engineering and was first flown in the late 50s. You could literally fly backwards in a headeind and land on a dime. It was really useful for tiny dirt strips in places like Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately, there's not much out there that can match it's capability for what it was.

"Aircraft design is has come a long way since the 40's."

You could do this in 1940s aircraft as well. Biplanes can also do short-field takeoffs with impressively short distances.

I have very little experience riding in small aircraft, but I remember taking a tourist flight from Finow (Germany) in an Antonov An-2 during the CCC camp.

Strikingly, the pilot didn't really bother to line up with the runway at all prior to his landing. He just kind of flew toward the airport and then made an almost automobile-style turn in the air at the last minute from his approach vector onto the runway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-2

> As such, pilots of the An-2 have stated that they are capable of flying the aircraft in full control at 48 km/h (30 mph)

True. The Fieseler Storch first flew in 1936 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fieseler_Fi_156_Storch at could do this.

Some are still flying, according to the Wikipedia page

"A few hundred feet" and "20 feet" is a huge difference!

Of course.

But when you do it on an 11,000 foot runway with full fuel and a passenger it's almost comical to fly almost two miles down the runway centerline. :)

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