AAM: Starting To Sound Like The Lyrics Under A Gospel Tent.

I feel bad for airports that are pressured into creating facilities for these contraptions because it makes electeds feel good

Mike, remember the VLJ and how the skies were going to be filled with 10,000 of them? Before I retired I was at an early version of a UAM conference and I asked what they thought the aircraft would cost. All of their models assumed $100k each, which appeared to be a number they backed in to reach a feasible case. When I pointed out that a basic Cessna 172 was just under $200k and questioned their model I just got crickets. I have yet to see any serious analysis for an urban operation let alone a rural one. Right now all they would do is replace the helicopters that the executives take to the airport. The cost point, airspace, and infrastructure are not even close to development for a profitable entry in either an urban or rural setting.

Mike... you've missed the whole point, again. The real money in AAM/RAM is not in the "Buck Rogers in the 21st Century" infrastructure. It's in the sponsorship of cutting-edge conferences like the one in Geneva that you critiqued. Economic facts be damned: the high conference registration fees and an agenda of industry luminaries assure that the participants will be regaled with tales of technological legerdemain worthy of an evangelical revival meeting. And, each conference registrant gets a net zero, carbon-free light saber guaranteed to vaporize any uncomfortable facts that make it through the fog. Get with the program!