Originally Posted by
Derfred
I would imagine that if a “laminar flow fuselage” is your objective then a SE front prop would defeat the purpose.
It is a fascinating concept, but if it is ever to be anything more than a wealthy person’s private aircraft, what are the chances of the V12 piston gaining approval for SE commercial pax ops? They seem to have glossed over that little point on their website. They gloat about it’s efficiency, but fuel consumption is really only relevant to a high-hour commercial usage case. A private aircraft owner would be more concerned with the other costs of ownership.
Although they do mention freight, so it could be a competitor in that market, if it can fly around the clock and compete with something like the C208.
Something else irks me though. Entrepreneur aircraft designers having been trying to put pusher props on aircraft forever. None of them ever seem to succeed on a commercial scale. Now, I would be the last person to make that a reason to stymie innovation, but if I was the CEO of Fedex, I would still be pretty reluctant to hand over a large cheque for a couple of hundred of these as a launch customer.
So while it may look awesome on paper, and the prototype actually performs to specifications, and it’s an aeronautical engineer’s wet dream, will they actually sell any?
I have to agree on all counts.
I cannot see this ever coming to fruition other than a few prototypes to keep any investors content, for now!
It will however keep us entertained, for a while -)