Matt,

I'm sorry, but I beg to differ.

To start with peer review.

Who are the peers?
How many airplanes have they designed, built, and flown?


Business?
Most of the plans only aircraft are just that - plans only.
Having built and test flown the airplane, selling plans is
not a terribly expensive endeavor to get into.
But it's not a big money machine either.
How many sets of plans do you thing are sold for each design out there?

How many airplanes do you think are built every year - kits included?

Even the simplest airplane takes scads of time and money to develop.
Are the "open source" people going to contribute to that?




The core questions a

1. Would it improve the quality of the available intellectual
property?

Not in the least. You may re-draw the plans in CAD. But what
does that accomplish? You have pretty plans, but has anything
been added in the way of detail? If so, where did that information
come from?

2. Would it improve the popularity of homebuilding?

No.

3. Would it positively effect net revenues for business's in
homebuilding?

No. There are only so many people who will ever build an airplane.
Completion rates are amazingly low.
ANd that's not because the plans are hard to read.


While there would be some winners and some loosers, I believe the
answer to all three questions, over the long term, is yes.


I'm sorry, but I beg to differ...



Richard