ORIGINAL: Evil_Merlin
While it irritates me too, especially because I want to turbine power my 1/4.5 scale Me-163... I can understand why the AMA has an issue with turbines.
Just look at the crashes. How often do you see a fire break out from a ducted fan or standard glow powered crash?
Not to mention the speed turbines have over even the best ducted fan aircraft at this time.
Insurance is expensive, and there are a lot of eyes on the flying RC world now due to some weirdo's at Fox... and the AMA is stuck in the middle.
Speed should not even be a consideration IMO, a quarter 40 pylon plane is flying as fast or faster than most jets, in an environment where crashes are far more likely, dynamic slope soarers are flying faster than most turbines can reach, model rockets are a hell of a lot faster (admittedly for a very short time) etc etc etc.
I've seen fires caused by gasoline engines, I've seen a fire caused by a glow heli crash, I've seen nitro powered cars cause fires, and I've seen model rockets cause fires. I agree with Ghost, why do people put so much emphasis on jets? All those fires I've seen from other planes don't get sensationalized like a jet crash does, it's stupid if you ask me.