In the 1980's, the General Aviation Industry went into a tailspin due to liability issues. During the subsequent hiatus in activity, several proof of concept developments appeared. These concepts have matured in the 1990's, under the impluse of the Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments Program and others. As a result the industry has renewed technical potential to revitalize. To date innovative lightweight/low cost, dolphin shaped, composite airframes, which blend the wings and the engines into the structure at their ideal location, have been designed and test flown. Superior strength/weight performance has been obtained with structures which are Grid-Stiffened along geodesic lines. Additionally many first time observers are stunned by the amount of unobstructed space available within the airframe. What is currently lacking is an automated manufacturing capability for grid stiffened (geodesic) structures. This issue, if unresolved, will keep the General Aviation Industry from developing beyond the level of prototyping and therefore revitalization would almost certainly be out of the question.
