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At 11:14 AM 10/9/96, Kevin W. Juergensen wrote:

>I just want to point out that we've had jet airplanes for the last 50
>years, and civilian single engine aircraft for longer than that.  If the
>"evolution" of technology leads to an inevetable incorporation into
>civilian hands, then why don't we have private pilots all flying jets?  The
>answer:  They are far too technical, and require far too much training for
>the average joe pilot.

Kevin, I suspect that it has far more to do with cost than operational
complexity.  If you look at the price of a low end private jet (a Lear)
and compare it with a high end prop plane I think you'll see my point.

About 10 years ago Bert Rutan rebuilt a salvaged T-38 for a private owner
at an estimated cost of $178,000.  This was way cheap and really irritated
me personally because it's not a re-producable event (read, Rutan or his
client were well connected).  Even though this sounds great, a T-38 on
burners will suck about 3000 lbs an hour (according to my feable memory).
This makes it cheap to keep relative to an F4, but still a little hard
on your average pocketbook.

Even commercial operators have switched to turboprops for price/performance
reasons.  Jets are cool and they go real fast but they're *very* expensive
to operate.

Scott.

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