Viewing profile — n_ermosh

The control system knows what the rudder should be at all times for coordinated flight in the air, and keeping the nose and ground track aligned when near the ground for landing, p…

I'd love to chat through your questions directly--feel free to book a call with us through our website (just mention this HN post) and I'm happy to talk through everything

You can revert to a "direct law" in an emergency should multiple faults occur that reduce the capability of the flight controller. However, there's a question of is that the right …

I think there's definitely a "tried and true" and "if it aint broke don't fix it" mentality. Combine that with the fear of trying something new in the face of the FAA and regulator…

Well, not exactly. In case of an engine failure, the system still has power from the batteries to control the actuator and glide the plane (in fact, it will automatically switch to…

we should talk! We are exploring how to make a subscription model work. It's not possible in an experimental category airplane, but our future models where they can be rented (lega…

Airhart Sling is just the first step too. yes, it's expensive, but it gets the tech into today's market. Our mission is to scale the market to develop a plane that costs <$100k by …

There's an interesting dynamic here--we (the industry today) are more okay with flying rickety airplanes from the 70s before flying something built with more modern engineering and…

fair criticism--I should be more specific than just "green". our first model will still be a gasoline ICE airplane, but we are building a limited number of them to get our tech out…

yep--we want to reverse that trend. And you are probably right, a lot of those 70s planes still fly today. hopefully we can replace them with better alternatives

We'll still encourage and require the same proficiency checks that pilots do today. Our hope is that GA pilots will no longer need to do things like train stall recovery. We are mo…

The core innovation here is the fly-by-wire/simplified control scheme. This doesn't exist in any GA aircraft. As our system has been developed so far, it has negligible impact on t…

we've definitely thought about that! the force-feedback fly by wire makes it really easy to replicate the feel of flying the real thing very well. What you see outside though will …

this is definitely more of the "roadster". we will be building a limited number to get it into peoples hands as quickly as possible, with future models being lower cost, more effic…

We've talked to many and the complexity of flying a plane is a big factor--because the knowledge that if they mess up stick and rudder means they have a high chance of losing contr…

it is indeed a problem. however, Sling (who we are working with on our first model) is also developing a "Whisper" version of their airplane to make it dramatically quieter ( https…

> 150kt Cruise, 4h endurance - 400kg "useful" load for pax/luggage @ 4h endurance / batteries - 3-axis AP that'll do coupled approaches + autoland - BRS, FIKI, Oxy/Pressurized - $1…

> The Ercoupe tried this exact approach in the 30s in one of the big GA booms and it just wasn't borne out. The Ercoupe was a great idea for it's time, but we can do so much more w…

Today's batteries aren't quite good enough to hit the same performance. But developments in the hybrid electric space look promising. Battery technology is improving though, so in …

a combination of altitude, commanded descent rate, and commanded airspeed transition the control system from flight to landing, flare and touch down, and into ground control mode.

Multiple sensors, actively modeling the flight dynamics to detect anomalous sensors/behaviors (i.e. is what we are measuring what we expect to measure), and BRS as a final backup.

yes I should have mentioned actuators as well. the actuators are internally redundant in terms of computation and power and will fail silent and not move if they disagree. Then, ea…

The core flight simulator is x-plane with some of our own stuff on top

we won't want to lower the bar in terms of the pilot's ability to stay safe. But we do want to lower the barrier to entry so that more people can learn to do it, do it safely, and …

In your case, you do start to approach the point where time-wise it's about equal. But, 30 minutes to your nearest GA airport is on the long side, most people (300M) live within 15…