Although aviation has made amazing advances in the past hundred years, it is my observation that general aviation is stuck in a paradigm that prevents, rather than encourages innovation.

Every engineer knows that every asset has a liability, and that every feature has a cost. What might be possible if aircraft designers could forget about brakes and landing gear and runways?

Could it be possible to create an alternative paradigm for aviation that would facilitate simple, lightweight, fully automated drones, launching them with catapults, and landing them into arresting devices designed to absorb their momentum? Could it be possible to operate drones from tall buildings and/or towers?

I’m not thinking that this could rolled out in the USA. And it is clear that the world is not ready to trust machines over humans, but there will be a time and day when this is possible, save for regulatory requirements, and I wish to facilitate discussion. Please!