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

news.ycombinator.com

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

#301

Post by topspin »

shekispeaks wrote: post #299

This is commendable, people who travel 50-300 miles do not use an Aeroplane because you need a car on the other end regardless, so I rather take my car. For example, SF to Tahoe is demonstrated as a route I could fly, but I need a car on the other end for sure. I could rent a car which is a pain. I could arrange a driver service, but at that point I could get driver to drive me from San Francisco. It is too expensive…

If all the talk about reducing costs for this aircraft is fully realized it will still cost at least a few hundred thousand dollars. If you have those means then funding a few cars isn't much of an issue.

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

#302

Post by iandanforth »

The video and the pitch strike me as odd. The value proposition here is to grow the market for small planes by making them easy. You still need to be rich so this is basically an expensive toy. I'm not sure comparisons to what came before matter, the people who will buy this don't know or care about the existing way to control a plane.

All you have to do is show how easy your system is. To which end, why the hell would you put two separate hand controls rather than a steering wheel that also goes in and out and some pedals for speed up and slow down. It it's as easy as a car, make it like a car.

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

#303

Post by blt »

lovecg wrote: post #297
echoangle wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that was his point. To calculate if you are going to stall in a final, you need to know your weight and flap setting to see if you will exceed the critical angle of attack when doing the turn, exactly because the speed isn’t constant.

No, you just need an angle of attack sensor. These are increasingly available for small GA planes.

stall AoA depends on flaps though?

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

#304

Post by frankus »

I’ve often thought this kind “do what I mean” control could expand to a lot of machines where currently it takes potentially years to develop an intuition around how moving various levers/pedals actually results in things moving physically in space the way that you intend.

A few years ago I rented a mini excavator whose levers are directly connected to hydraulic valves that control the motion of the bucket in a weird polar coordinate space. It’s extremely tricky as a beginner to even e.g. make the bottom of a trench level, and it seems like just a bit of intelligence would make this trivial. Even a bit of force feedback would do wonders for controllability.

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

#305

Post by nkrisc »

> If we already have the infrastructure and the technology, why isn't everyone flying planes?

Because driving a car 50-300 miles is cheaper, easier, and may even be faster in some scenarios.

Oh, and when I get to my destination, I have a car.

I’m not a pilot and this couldn’t make me one. Too expensive, too much work, too inconvenient. Very cool but everyone isn’t going to be flying any more than they already are. It’s for people who already are or already want to be pilots.

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

#306

Post by cwalv »

smackeyacky wrote: post #240
windexh8er wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It may sound snobby - but I'm not super excited about the idea of lowering the barrier to entry for GA on a foundational skill basis. Like the light-sport rating, it encourages more people to be in the (already congested) airspace system who haven't really gained all the other skills necessary or experience to be there. I'm not a pilot, but I've always wanted to go down the path. In theory - this should be rather e…

I wanted to do this too and was in a financial position to start lessons. Had raced cars in the past, rebuilt cars, mechanically savvy, fiddled around a whole heap with flight simulars, got excited about it. Paid my money for the initial 3 flights. First time up (in a Cessna) beautiful clear day, low wind. Once we had done the safety checks I was instructed to taxi the plane. It was about as complicated as a ride-on…

I remember feeling the same way the first time I went up in a small plane (Cessna 150). I had a tourist ride in a small helicopter later (R44) and it was so much smoother. But I was probably safer in the Cessna.

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

#307

Post by nkrisc »

duped wrote: post #204
n_ermosh wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today, airplanes are not great when it comes to their environmental impacts. If we are successful in our bet that we can grow the GA market, we'll have the resources to invest into greener propulsion technology. That space is currently evolving quickly, with hybrid-electric, hydrogen, full electric and others all being explored. So it's in our plans to address that as well.

I didn't want to make a snarky, unabashadly NIMBY comment until I read this response. For every dollar you lower barrier to entry in aviation, I'm going to be calling my local government representatives to raise it back up by two with taxes and fees. The solutions to environmental problems aren't to grow markets with technology we know is bad so we have the money to make it less bad. The solution is to make it so exp…

Their planes cost half a million dollars, I’m not too concerned about everyone flying just yet. These are expensive toys for the wealthy.

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

#308

Post by zw123456 »

I am so sorry to see this. The absolute last thing we need is yet another fossil guzzling vehicle. Please stop what you are doing immediately and go back to the drawing board and help save our planet by inventing a craft that uses solar power to charge batteries to fly. I am sure I will get down voted to hell for this. But tough shit. The planet is chocking and we simply do not need more people burning fossil fuel for fun and pleasure. Stop. Please. Stop and rethink this.

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

#310

Post by callalex »

n_ermosh wrote: post #110
shafyy wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't try to weasel your way out of this. Just be honest and say you like working on cool plane tech stuff and admit it's not great for the environment when more people will fly. No shame in that. Or maybe there is shame, but that's up to you.

maybe I wasn't clear but I completely agree that airplanes are not good for the environment. That absolutely needs to be fixed. But to fix it requires capital and public demand. We are hoping to generate both by getting more people flying so that it's not just a niche people who fly planes and care about the environment working asking for it and spending money in the industry

This forum is providing me a rare opportunity to speak to someone of your caliber:

To someone not surrounded by the same aerospace/defence/pentagon welfare state people that you are surrounded by, you come across as very genuine, caring, and hard-working but completely missing the point. Your statements in this thread indicate that you think there maaaaay be an environmental issue but you don’t care because it could never affect you personally. You demonstrate no sense of urgency, which is what the people questioning you are looking for, because that’s what the science shows.

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