Quote:
Originally Posted by California98Civic
So, this NASA project seems highly impractical for NASA's purposes. Why are they developing a pilotted recreational aircraft or puddle-jump tourism plane? This will never fly to Mars.  |
NASA is more than just a space agency, ain't it?
Quote:
|
...it must be about technology development along the way, but then why build it as a small, pilotted passenger plane?
|
Maybe they also don't hold some great expectation for remotely-pilotted or fully autonomous aicraft to become mainstream. Plus it seems like a reasonable test bed for an electric cropduster for example. Sure there are some strategic reasons for such development, but only time will tell...