An approximately 250-pound gyrocopter flying at about 50 mph, carrying a single pilot and maybe five gallons of gasoline ? not so much. Most likely, it would bounce off a structure as robust as the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
So why are Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and many of her colleagues all worked up about the Florida mailman who flew low through some of the most restricted airspace in the world Wednesday and landed his tiny one-man copter on the lawn of Congress? "The exposure is stunning," Pelosi said about the gyrocopter's ability to get close to her workplace. "We certainly need answers."
Actually, we need to take a deep breath.
Yes, airliners can destroy buildings and kill thousands of people. But small general aviation airplanes can smash into buildings and usually kill no one but the pilot. A gyrocopter is even less of a threat, and the drone that a man accidentally flew over a fence at the White House one night in January was still less of a menace. But because these are aircraft, they consistently provoke fear way out of proportion to the actual threat.
