Wow this thread justifying $30k parts that cost $400 to make is like Turkeys arguing the merits of Christmas. Pilots on forums are like the Peoples Front of Judea versus the Judean Peoples Front.
You guys are arguing different things - one is amortizing the $1m R&D cost into the part. The other is talking about a lump of metal being machined for under $1000. You are both right.
Jason Hill is saying he's swallowing the difficult R&D upfront, then he can stamp out machines for realistic prices. The entire merit of this project is modern industrialisation of 20-50 year old concepts, with modern materials, processes, alloys, aerodynamics and so on. Just what a modern helicopter should look like; nothing more or less. There's no fancy hybrid drives, parachutes, etc.
You are all forgetting this is EXPERIMENTAL, with the concurrent certification effort, paid for by profits & builds of the experimental over many years. It's not the same business model as upfront certification and sale of 3rd party parts to compete with OEM's.
Example: One of his videos he says one particular rotor part has about €300 of actual metal/rubber/glue used to make it (yes yes, plus labour etc.). The certified Big Aviation™ part is €30,000. Each. Times three. So once he solves that R&D and develops a manufacturing process, he can bypass all that ridiculousness and multiplied over dozens/hundreds of parts, make a ￡500k chopper, (presumably with heathy profit margin).
I think we've heard enough of the "this won't work" posts that it's not value adding any more. Time will prove these right or wrong, otherwise everybody is just going around in circles. I propose this thread focus more on technical aspects of the program, eg points brought up in the latest video update (
) such as the shift to a single stage compressor turbine due to bearing loads & secondary air system efficiency/complexity and how do other engines solve this issue.