amberwolf said:
Can you afford the crash testing?
Oh, the perfect response. And yet only the beginning. There's ways around the crash testing, such as building a 3 wheel car so it's a motorcycle and doesn't require it. But bringing the car to market will take a lot more than building something that more or less works, such as the Model T was. And the Model T's were getting parked and abandoned as obsolete and unsuitable for driving while the car was still on the market. Maybe that's not the role model we need.
The XPrize for space led to Burt Rutan spending more than $10 million, though he was sponsored. That's long been the thinking, plus the spending of others who don't win the prize, so they expect they're generating over $100 million in development by offering that $10 million. So you really need to just plain WANT to do it, without seeking a prize to pay for it.
The Orteig Prize, the original inspiration was a bust at first. During the initial 5 year duration from 1919 to 1924 noone mounted a serious effort to win the $25,000. When another 5 years was offered, the accidents, and fatalities, began. The prize was a two edged sword; the companies that were considered most likely to build the winner, Fokker, Wright and it's spinoff Bellanca, etc., were more concerned with decided what sort of plane they wanted to offer the customers who wanted one just like the winner of the Orteig Prize than with building the plane capable of winning. Bellanca went so far as to try to take a customers' money but not let him fly the plane, they really thought they could just grab and get away with it. Too bad for them: Instead of conning him, they should have just let Charles Lindbergh have their WB2 instead of forcing him to go to little known Ryan Airlines, a near bankrupt company which became a household name for building 'The Spirt of St. Louis' for half what Bellanca had promised him he'd get the WB2 for before they welched. Turned out Lindbergh was able to make the first transAtlantic flight for considerably less than the Orteig Prize offered. Another of the many missteps by Bellanca. . . .
