The Ercoupe was billed as "spin-proof". Really, it was just an airplane for
pilots that didn't know how to fly. It had no rudder pedals, so it was hoped
that pilots would never yaw the aircraft. Designers have been trying for a
very long time to make an airplane that any hamfisted idiot could fly. I guess
the Airbus was their crowning glory.
The problem is that as the aircraft become less demanding, the pilots become
less skilled. People deny this, but it's true. You end up with the same margin
of safety with an incredibly complex aircraft loaded with safety systems for
weak pilots.
The problem is that one day, one or more of those incredibly complex aircraft
systems malfunction, and create a nasty aircraft that the weak pilots do not
have a hope in Hell of dealing with, and everyone on board dies in the name
of egalitarian safety. Very few people are capable of seeing the irony.
See MCAS. There's a real triumph of safety and regulatory compliance. It's
pretty well killed Boeing.
At the other end of the spectrum, far away from the rounded-corners Fisher-Price
playpen aircraft, are the F-104 and Pitts and Gee Bee Racer, for example. They
are extremely capable, and do exactly what you tell them to do.
This horrifies the bad pilots, who quickly kill themselves in them, and call them
all sorts of silly names. Skilled pilots love aircraft like that. You know.
BAD PEOPLE.
