Originally Posted by 411A
The right engine on my private aeroplane is a Continental GTSIO520 model.
I think we knew that, didn't we?
Complex-system reliability is an art, not a science. I count IC engines as complex; I count a door, with hinges, as non-complex, although they can be quite as frustrating and unreliable.
I sat behind an IO360 for many hours, in mountains in winter, in weather, over ocean. (Well, not *that* many hours.) Cracked a cylinder, lost a mag. Ever worried? No.
These pieces of art have huge amounts of data behind them to tell you what they do. And they do their job as well as it can be done. Like a safety razor. Like a well-balanced kitchen knife.
Those are the reasons, and they are reasons that no "newer technology" can hope to match for a few decades yet.
The quandary is: how do we then progress? While answering that question, one might well remember that neither progress nor stasis is a necessary condition.
PBL