Birdman March 21, 2018, 3:59 a.m. EET @man pat Dont you have better things to do? How many times they have to tell you its 20 minutes with 10 minute reserve. They write the rules, if you dont like it then dont participate.
The “20 minutes or 20 miles” question was a fundamental one for the GoFly / BOEING contest. It was a warning for GoFly / BOEING that they were arguing their own basic claims and basic rules.
How do you like now your: “They write the rules, if you don’t like it then dont participate.” Joking.
To all:
If anybody is going to sue GoFly and ask their 250/500$ back, I can’t see a more solid argument than the above “20 minutes OR 20 miles”: they started (see their CNN spots) a contest looking for “a personal flying devices capable of flying for 20 miles carrying a single person”, and then they changed it to a contest for “a personal flying device capable of flying 20 minutes carrying a single person”. The judge can simply check out how all GoFly’s web pages start with today (“20 miles”).
As most of you, when I first saw the “BOEING” as the big sponsor of the GoFly contest, I thought the contest would be at least transparent.
I thought that BOEING would not allow the “BOEING” name to get involved in anything not transparent or in anything opposite to the common sense and reasoning.
Now, after the official announcement of the phase I prizes of GoFly / BOEING:
I still do not know how many ideas were submitted (the 600+ innovators and the 6(!) continents say nothing about the number of “solutions” submitted). Does anybody know why this number is still a top secret? Any guess?
I still do not know who the judges are and what criteria and points they used.
I still do not know the solutions of the 10 winners. The low resolution graphics provided, are not explanatory in most cases. GoFly should publish the high resolution graphics of the winners, something that complies with their own (GoFLy’s) rules. Quote from the submission: In section 1 it starts with: “1. Information for GoFly publications. No data submitted in this section will be used to assess entries for prizes. Data submitted in this section may be used by GoFly in various publications such as team lists, AWARD ANNOUNCEMENTS, etc. By submitting data in this section, you are GRANTING GoFly rights to publish the data in this section.” End of Quote. So, what is all this secrecy for? The winners would like to see their high resolution graphics in the web. And by submitting their proposals, they gave their permission to GoFly for this. Why all this secrecy, instead of transparency and publicity?
I still do not know neither the points given to my submission, nor my ranking (11th? 111th? last?), nor the weak points of my proposal in order to correct them before proceeding with the next phases.
What I do know now is that I paid US250$ for nothing. Yet, I had the excuse that behind GoFly was BOEING, and that BOEING would never compromise with non-transparent procedures. I proved wrong. The procedures are not transparent, yet BOEING continues to appear as the big sponsor of the GoFly’s contest.
What I do know now is also that I will not continue (unless the BOEING will put aside the GoFly, and take over, cancelling the equity and the rest nonsense of GoFly).
If you want to present your own submission, too, I have available space in the above www.pattakon.com web site. How? E-mail me ( at man@pattakon.com ) your “Technical Design Report” PDF file as filed to the GoFly contest, your high-resolution Design Graphics, your two PDF drawings, a short abstract and your contact details. If after seeing your submission published you don’t like it, you will ask me and I will delete it from the www.pattakon.com web site.
(or present your submission in the “HomeBuiltAirplaneForum”, or in another technical forum)
After publishing several proposals / submissions, we can start a technical discussion in a forum (for instance, hopefully the HomeBuiltAirplaneForum would like to host such a technical discussion). This way, the one contestant can have the criticism / objections of the other contestants, and of the other members of the technical forum. A third party is always useful.
By showcasing the work / solutions proposed by several contestants, it may attract the interest of a rich guy (say like the Bill Gates of Microsoft, who wrote in “The Time” magazine the article about the Wright brothers, and who, after spending 23 million dollars on the EcoMotors OPOC engine, is now trying to forget that he was caught such a sucker), or it may attract the interest of a big company (say like the AirBus) to make a TRANSPARENT international contest wherein the noise will not cover 50% of the points, and wherein the safety, and the range, and the speed, and the ownership cost, and the running cost, and the emissions emitted would take the big part of the points (and not zero as in the GoFly contest).
So, you have a way to present your work and to explain it to the public. For free. Your choice.
Is there anything positive / useful in hiding something that GoFly guys already saw? (and thereby cannot be patented in the USPTO). If, on the other hand, it is already patented, or patent pending, there is nothing to hide.
To those who agree that it is not useful all this work in the submissions (which may prove (in hindsight) to be the “state-of-the-art” today) to remain hidden and be eventually lost / unknown to the public. . .
@manolis Well said Manolis!And very good sudgestions . Also this way anyone for himself will be able to see and compare "winners " to "losers" and to judge how honest was this competition . You are smart guy , what actualy make you wiser ( it comes with the ages) is the experience like as this competition provide for all of us. Next time I hope you will recognize the signs of irregularities in an earlier moment before to throw your money in someone else pockets.Actualy the people with idealistic intentions never will asked you for money. They continue to heavily censure the forum so this is a good sign that the peple are on the right track or at least very close to .
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