Small Aircraft Transportation System...Why does this piss me off so?

[BiggJawn]

There's a display trailer on campus today, sponsored by SATS and the National Consortium for Aviation Mobility.
http://ncam-sats.org/

Now, I got no problem with private industry spending their money developing Solutions Looking for A Problem, but since NASA is involved with this, I imagine Tax dollars are being used.

From the webpage:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in partnership with the Department of Transportation/Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and state & local aviation and airport authorities, leads a new research & development program for devloping and demonstrating technologies needed for a Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS). The project's initial mission is to prove that four new operating capabilities will enable safe and affordable access to virtually any runway in the nation in most weather conditions. These new operating capabilities rely on on-board computing, advanced flight controls, Highway in the Sky displays, and automated air traffic separation and sequencing technologies. For detailed information about NASA's SATS program please go to sats.nasa.gov, you can also download a in PDF format (size 5 MB) tri-fold of the SATS program.

NASA and NCAM envision that SATS will give more time to more people, by satisfying the emerging public demand for safe, higher-speed mobility and increased accessibility to suburban, rural and remote communities.

The SATS benefits include improved standards of living and quality of life for the nation in the new global economy.


OK.....Soooooooo...(deep breath, Jawnn) They're trying to tell me that in a Nation where the majority of people are going to have BIG trouble in the near-future being able to commute by their CURRENT mode, a Nation where we have kids going to bed hungry, people without access to decent food, shelter, or health care, a nation where education is becoming the perogative of the Obscenely Wealthy...

That we NEED a "new system" to get Mr. Spiff Kapitan-O-Industry from his pastoral estate miles from No-place (except his local Muni airfield) to Chicago or Manhattan so he can come up with new ways to rob us Serfs? So the kids can fly home at the end of the day from UCLA to mom's ski cottage in Telluride?

I HAVE seen it all, now.....

[BiggJawn]

1. Kick for whoever hasn't put me on "ignore" in the evening crowd.

Not ONE comment?
Maybe I should have put something about The Pope in the subject header...