GoFly fails to take off

[Mike Flynn]

It appears efforts to raise funding for the GoFly jet powered glider have failed.

https://i.imgur.com/JxVjjaJ.jpg


GoFlyAircraft intends to democratize and grow a market by making and selling smart, appealing, entry-level powered soaring aircraft.

We completed our InnovateUK backed prototype project in 2016. We've had 300+ sales inquiries from 37 countries already, and unsolicited agent contacts in 15 countries, from our positive and widespread international publicity and 53,000 unique website visitors. We are export focused and are now fundraising to productionize prototypes and set-up series manufacture.

Gliding clubs have long been the only way to enjoy soaring because all gliders were unpowered and had to be launched by helpers. Now, some sailplanes (high-performance gliders) have engines added and can take off unaided. Many elite racing sailplanes have £100k+ tags. Our under £50k entry-level hybrid-powered sailplane enables more affordable club-free operation at airstrips everywhere, even among other air traffic at airports.

Lower cost, independence, and choice are our target USPs.

We judged a world market for 300 of our first product, but great publicity and strong international sales inquiries during the prototype project means we plan for 800+.

[Jonzarno]

It’s an old saw but: if you want to make a small fortune building aircraft, you really need to start with a large one... :)

[Quake]

You would have to be daft to throw money at that.

[Mike Flynn]

It’s an old saw but: if you want to make a small fortune building aircraft, you really need to start with a large one... :)

Yes we have all heard that one Jon and know people who have tried.

A friend of mine (now deceased) , Marcus Edwards, invested time and money in the
Noble Hardman Snowbird.
https://i.imgur.com/ZaHd5l8.jpg

Not the fastest or most attractive aircraft in the world.

Marcus was an ex Navy Sea Vixen pilot who was later part of the Rothmans Aerobatic Team.

The Snowbird scheme only ever sold 20 airframes:(

Marcus thought it would change entry level aviation.

I have a picture somewhere of flying the Richard Noble ARV.

Another aircraft that was going to change GA but was actually just a stretched version of a friends Bolkow.

[Jan Olieslagers]

@Jon: yes we have heard it, over and over. Still, these guys did not put making a fortune as their first goal. If it was, they managed to hide it well... I for one am willing to believe the basic idea was and is to provide an affordable state of the art aeroplane.

@JS: it is regrettable but not surprising this Snowbird did not make it to great success. It looks only like "more of the same" - how could it hope to compete with the C42's, Euro- and other Foxes, Guépards, Rans S6's and what not? There's demand enough for such a basic 2-seater but the offer is even larger. And some of the competition are assembled in 2nd-world countries at much lower cost.

[Mike Flynn]

@Jon: yes we have heard it, over and over. Still, these guys did not put making a fortune as their first goal. If it was, they managed to hide it well... I for one am willing to believe the basic idea was and is to provide an affordable state of the art aeroplane.

@JS: it is regrettable but not surprising this Snowbird did not make it to great success. It looks only like "more of the same" - how could it hope to compete with the C42's, Euro- and other Foxes, Guépards, Rans S6's and what not? There's demand enough for such a basic 2-seater but the offer is even larger. And some of the competition are assembled in 2nd-world countries at much lower cost.

Jan

The Snowbird was a mid 1980's design and production aircraft. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The numbers suggested in the appeal for funding on the GoFly are substantial for an aircraft with no flight record.

Frankly I am not sure who it would appeal to at a price of £50k

[Jan Olieslagers]

Sorry @JS but at least the Rans S6 was already around in the mid 1980's too. Fox family was about, too, already in many variants. I am less sure about the others, though, and I did leave the Aeroprakt A26 unmentioned for this very reason. The abundance of comparable types was perhaps less pronounced at that time but it certainly existed.

Britain could sadly not even keep the CFM Shadow in production, which was at least a much more original design. Which has its pros and its cons, of course.

Fazit: starting a new aeroplane type is not a small enterprise. Not even if the first goal is not to make a fortune.

OTOH 50.000 quid seems quite a bearable price for a state of the art powered glider - there's a few at my homefield that cost a multiple of that.

[Mike Flynn]

The problem with the Snowbird was it looked like it had been built in a shed.

The Rans had style.

[Quake]

There was a snowbird at Swansea for many years, the bloke who owned it got ill and I think must have lost his medical, it only ever got flown for the permit renewal.

Looking around it I reckon it must have been a very labour intensive build, I really liked the idea of the spoilerons.
Last I saw, it was still in the Hanger but the covering looked in an awfull state, would have loved to have had a fly of it.

[Mike Flynn]

There was a snowbird at Swansea for many years, the bloke who owned it got ill and I think must have lost his medical, it only ever got flown for the permit renewal.

Looking around it I reckon it must have been a very labour intensive build, I really liked the idea of the spoilerons.
Last I saw, it was still in the Hanger but the covering looked in an awfull state, would have loved to have had a fly of it.


That is most probably G-MVYV which is on a permit until next November.

https://i.imgur.com/d3RAfZk.jpg

[Capt Kremmen]

I remember going to the former RAF Llandow in Wales during 1990 to meet a very pleasant bloke named Marcus Edwards to test fly the Snowbird before buying one.


I flew with Marcus and immediately liked the a/c. At £11,000 it wasn't particularly cheap but it flew well. I didn't buy but instead turned to an even more unsuitable beast called the ARV Super2. How that Hewland engine ever got certified I'll never know.

[Mike Flynn]

I spent many a happy afternoon with Marcus in the Blue Anchor at Aberthawe and indeed had a wonderful dog he gave me as a pup.

However I never rate the Snowbird as an aircraft many would buy. It lacked kerb appeal.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I remember it well, nice honest - if slightly unorthodox aeroplane to fly.

But no, lacked kerb appeal and was probably never going to set the world alight. That said, it had enough about it to make itself a bigger niche than it did, if not for some genuinely bad luck.

There was an attempt to resurrect it, but with the covering fabric and engine now obsolete, there was just too much to be solved to really get it on the market at the bargain end it needed to be.

G