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Comment by JumpCrisscross | Hacker News Reader

> You'll have to break up the FAA first. The certification costs are ungodly, rigid, and the certification process created fascistic interweaving of industry with government

Why do you need to break up the FAA to simplify certification?

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The golden age of flight had not only competition of manufacture, but competition from consumers and purchasers on risk appetite. It could not emerge under an FAA as we know it. To come anywhere near that you'd need to break up the FAA, as it has a virtual monopoly on violence in enforcing the CFRs here. Let people pick which, if any enforcer they want certifying their airplanes.

That is, the FAA suffers from the same lack of competition as Boeing.

The golden age of flight splattered the blood of professionals and innocents alike to write those regulations.

Flight is not for cowboys.

You can't count all the dead from flight being held back FAA. It's similar with housing regulations -- the code inspector sees dead in a house but not the 10 homeless people he killed by making housing less accessible.

How would insufficient ability to make more dangerous planes kill anyone? By what mechanism? Who, for example? What are you even talking about?

One example is FAA balking at certifying evtols for years after they started to emerge. They're dangerous but could allow more accessible rescue options for people already in a dangerous survival situation, or need a fast ride to a hospital.

Invisible hand of the market would catch passengers mid air

The golden age of flight had ~100x the fatal accident rate that we do today.

No thanks.

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