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Use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) facilities is not merely restricted to the latest generation of fighter aircraft as depicted by this CAD structural outline of the French ACX aircraft. General Aviation companies are now using these facilities to design more efficient light aircraft. Piper's Malibu (p.10, March issue) is the first GA type designed from the outset using CAD technology
The Future of General Aviation
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What Is the Future for General Aviation?
Late in the year 1981, there was a tragic aircraft accident, tragic from many perspectives. It was a personal tragedy for those families involved, but it was a tragedy for general avi1:1tion because the prototype aircraft that went into Chesapeake Bay carried with it the dreams and legacy of the designers Howard (Pug) Piper and George Mead.
George Mead died in the crash along with two NASA engineers involved in the research programme evaluating the Piper Aircraft Technology PAT-1, a four-place composite aircraft that had promised more than one mile per hour for each horsepower. Its composite construction resulted in an airframe that would not be as labour-intensive, nor as expensive, to build as traditional all-metal machines.
Pug Piper, one of the three sons of the legendary William Thomas Piper, most, unfortunately, passed away after a protracted illness, but it was at least after he had presented the PAT-1 in static form at the Paris Air Show in June 1981.
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