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Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane

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Re: Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane

#11

Post by TylerE »

n_ermosh wrote: post #6
hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #3

As a paraglider pilot (unpowered), I will say that the technical aspects of flying the aircraft are only a small part of what's involved in a flight - as you point out. It's a bad idea to get pilots in the air with less training. People can't safely pilot cars in two dimensions. Making the avionics easier to use and more affordable sounds like the actual winning product.

The way we see it isn't less training, but training focused on the most important parts of flying: decision making and risk management. Given the current track record for accidents, they almost always culminate in the pilot failing to control the airplane, whether due to directly stalling or being distracted by another issue and then stalling. By eliminating loss of control as a failure mode, pilots can spend more of…

How do you propose this training happens? Surely this will require a full PPL as you're well above LSA limits.

I'd also be deathly afraid of what happens when the automation inevitably fails.

Re: Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane

#12

Post by user_7832 »

lostlogin wrote: post #8
mercurialsolo wrote: post #2

Super ambitious project that you are attempting - kudos to that! What do you think of 1. Licenses 2. Air traffic control & routing for personal crafts 3. Landing / Takeoff / Turbulence (weather) - where typically most of the human skill today is used in for commercial flights. 4. and probably the one for interface design and overall autonomous systems - human decision making + autonomous systems really have a difficu…

> Super ambitious project that you are attempting - kudos to that! The GPS and gyroscope reimplementation would appear to be a business opportunity in themselves - presumably there is a reason someone hasn’t undercut those parts already. Small market?

> presumably there is a reason someone hasn’t undercut those parts already. Small market?

I suspect the answer is simply regulations. Far too many modern things in aviation have been held back by the FAA.

Re: Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane

#14

Post by kspacewalk2 »

Wondering what you think about this video[0], which (if one ignores the clickbaity and colourful language and focuses on the substance of the argument) frames problems with mass adoption of "flying cars" as fundamental and idea-killing non-starters, rather than hurdles to work hard on, and overcome.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fcWOivJ6bs

Re: Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane

#15

Post by user_7832 »

I love the concept, as an aviation nerd (and hopefully future GA pilot). However I'm a little cautious - understanding weather particularly is massively different from moving in 2 dimensions and you can't land "anywhere", unlike how you can pull over. And the average person who doesn't know much about the weather isn't likely to know what a microburst is or why it's dangerous.

I'd recommend pitching this to (new) pilots instead at least for starters.

Re: Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane

#16

Post by mritchie712 »

daft_pink wrote: post #7

I disagree with your assessment. I think that the core problem with GA is that most people in the United States want to travel distances beyond what an affordable GA aircraft can in a single flight. I live in the midwest and I generally want to travel to the East or West coast or Southwest or Florida and the range of a Cessna just isn’t going to cut it. The only practical vehicle would be a Phenom 300 or Honda Jet II…

I might be over estimating, but I'd also think taking off and landing will tack on a few hours to the start and end of your trip. Fueling, safety checks, dealing with the control tower, etc. all seem like they'd effectively take your time savings to zero.

Re: Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane

#17

Post by n_ermosh »

daft_pink wrote: post #7

I disagree with your assessment. I think that the core problem with GA is that most people in the United States want to travel distances beyond what an affordable GA aircraft can in a single flight. I live in the midwest and I generally want to travel to the East or West coast or Southwest or Florida and the range of a Cessna just isn’t going to cut it. The only practical vehicle would be a Phenom 300 or Honda Jet II…

You're definitely right that the cross continental trip is a big and common one. however, 90% of long distance trips are made by car in the US with a median trip distance of about 200 miles. If we can make flying as easy as driving, the ability to make that trip in half to a third of the time, we believe that's a big win and incentive for a lot of people. There are 19,000 small airports in the US and 300M people live within 15 miles of at least one. So we totally think it's reasonable for that medium distance trip to be done by GA airplane rather than car.

Re: Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane

#18

Post by pricechild »

Howdy! FI(H) here. Looks very cool, I watched the video too.

Many students get the hang of hovering within 10 hours - "learning to fly" really isn't that hard? I see the rest of the course as "learning to become a pilot." That means the background knowledge and practice to allow decision making & dealing with emergencies etc.

I think if you could improve just a single one of the problems you touch on (difficult controls, navigation, mass and balance, fly by wire etc) you could make a lot of money...

... But improving all of them in one shot... that sounds unreasonable to me? Are they really connected?

> Our system makes it impossible to lose control of the airplane, potentially solving 80% of today’s fatal accidents in general aviation.

I'd love to see details on how you achieved this... or at least your definition of "impossible"...

Re: Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane

#19

Post by n_ermosh »

TylerE wrote: post #11
n_ermosh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way we see it isn't less training, but training focused on the most important parts of flying: decision making and risk management. Given the current track record for accidents, they almost always culminate in the pilot failing to control the airplane, whether due to directly stalling or being distracted by another issue and then stalling. By eliminating loss of control as a failure mode, pilots can spend more of…

How do you propose this training happens? Surely this will require a full PPL as you're well above LSA limits. I'd also be deathly afraid of what happens when the automation inevitably fails.

A lot of the existing training system from the FAA and others all emphasize aeronautical decision making and single-pilot resource management. It's the core thing that we are taught when we learn to fly.

Also, under the upcoming MOSAIC regulations, such airplanes will be LSAs and flyable with a sport pilot license.

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