HondaJet: Not A Steam Gage In Sight

Larry Dighera wrote:
http://world.honda.com/HondaJet/Styling/FlightDeck/
· All information, from flight and engine instrumentation to
navigation, communication, terrain and traffic data, is uniquely
integrated and digitally presented on the dual, large-format, high-
resolution primary flight displays and the multifunction display


· The HondaJet cockpit configuration provides a high degree of
integration for enhanced situational awareness, functionality, ease of
operation, redundancy, and flight safety.

Diamond aircraft are also all-electric, as well as nearly all jets and
turboprops.

Look, the only thing the vacuum pump runs in most planes that have one
is the attitude indicator and sometimes the DG, and it is far more
failure-prone than the electrical system. Not everybody designs planes
as if they were Cessna Skyhawks or Piper Tripacers. Those planes have
vacuum systems because they are cheap, not because they give you added
redundancy. Some manufacturers have had the gall to tell you that
putting unreliable systems on an airplane increases safety, but it
obviously does not. An enormous amount of instrument training is
devoted to failures of the vacuum system and people die anyway.
Technology has advanced somewhat since the 1950s. Given the enormous
number of lawsuits against manufacturers of vacuum pumps it is only a
matter of time before they disappear entirely. The true function of a
vaccum pump is to fail at the worst possible moment.

You talk about the failure of the power system on a Cessna 172S on a
long over-water ferry flight as if the plane was designed for that type
of flying. Ferry pilots ought to know that theirs is a high-risk
business. The battery backup on a 172S is perfectly adequate to get you
down safely in 99.9% of flights. If you choose to fly ANY plane where a
failure can put in a situation where you cannot recover, that is your
choice, but it is not the fault of the airplane or its designers. If
you choose to fly single-engine or single pilot IFR at night over the
mountains or long distances over water, that is your choice. But don't
complain that someone did not give you an 'out' when trouble happens.