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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

#361

Post by dbt00 »

serial_dev wrote: post #343
sethkim wrote: post #83

Instrument-rated pilot (and engineer) here. First - congrats on the launch! I think you're working on an interesting set of components that will prove useful to GA aircraft technology. Bringing fly-by-wire, and lowering the cost of maintenance/manufacturing are both great efforts. That being said, my personal view is that stick-and-rudder control is one of the less critical components to improving GA safety. Everythi…

> 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 By that logic, shouldn't we make driving cars as dangerous, complicated, inaccesible, and confusing as possible?

Only manual transmissions would really cut down on texting and driving.

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

#362

Post by brainless »

Congrats on the launch and kudos on building on bold ideas.

I think car rides are "good enough" for a certain distance vs short flights. Short flights (tiny aircrafts) are so expensive because they have to compete with the good enough option and I am not sure that can ever happen.

The more important point is that flight accidents can affect people or buildings that are far away from roads - practically anywhere within a certain range of a flight path. This will have huge effect in people's mindset about safety and work against the popularity of such flights.

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

#363

Post by _s »

n_ermosh wrote: post #255
_s wrote: post #253

Sounds a lot like the Airbus's "normal law" flying! My $0.02 - I'm a CPL ME/IR who gets wet a lot, and is upside down half the time. Background is Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, been in software since 2007. Want to shake up GA? - 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 - $100k…

> 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 - $100k fly away Totally agreed. Our long term roadmap has basically this exact product on it. However, anyone who doesn't know about GA will have no clue what this even means. We want more people to get into GA so that there's enough of a mark…

I don't think the GA market will ever grow that large though - not without substantial effort to make compliance with all the regulations effortless.

You need more pilots, so making it easier to navigate and comply with Parts 61/141/142, with 67/68.

You need more aerodromes; Part 139.

You need more aircraft, that's Parts 21, 23, 33, 35, 45 and maybe 34, 36 and 39 too.

You need more mechanics; Part 66 / 147.

You need more maintenance facilities, Part 21, 39, 43, 145.

There's maybe 50,000 active GA pilots (PPL or LSA) doing it for pleasure regularly? The rest are time building for the airlines, and same for mechanics.

To get that 50k to 500k to 5M actual people ... I think an affordable aircraft is probably the easiest part. Maybe it'll get people interested? Though you can already buy factory-built LSA's for $300k that'll do 150kts (see Risen); Europe already has a booming LSA scene ... but it hasn't really resulted in more people flying, not as far as I can tell.

I don't think an aircraft is the missing link, but I can't express how much I'd love to be proven wrong!

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

#364

Post by dartharva »

epolanski wrote: post #239

It's insane the length we go as humans (in the US at least) to not invest in the easiest, most cost-effective and environmentally friendly mode of transportation: trains. Hyperloops, wider and wider highways, now personal airplanes. Anything but goddamn trains. It's mental to me. Wish the best to the startup, after all they are filling a void someone else would, but still, not happy with the direction transport is go…

You can't take a train to anywhere you want. Tracks will always be less accessible than roads or the sky.

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

#367

Post by riedel »

philwelch wrote: post #328
adamnemecek wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rest of the world would like to disagree.

Yes, it’s frankly absurd and wasteful how much freight Europe moves by truck instead.

Germany (and probably some other European countries) have the problem of using the train network for freight at night and passengers by day. Together with underinvestment this has generated great problems but because infrastructure has been failing. It has been more politically opportune to invest in shared road infrastructure. Creating a healthy 'market' for infrastructure is extremely difficult.

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

#368

Post by Ringz »

philwelch wrote: post #328
adamnemecek wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rest of the world would like to disagree.

Yes, it’s frankly absurd and wasteful how much freight Europe moves by truck instead.

Do you have a source for that claim? Preferably a study that shows that the USA uses fewer trucks and more trains for the transport of goods than Europe.

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

#369

Post by Kiro »

badgersnake wrote: post #366

No mention of the environmental impact of this, which leads me to assume it would be bad. Any comments on this?

Lots of discussions about this in the thread already:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41164481

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41164580

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

#370

Post by smolder »

amluto wrote: post #330
callalex wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Burning fossil fuels is the problem. We can argue until the cows come home about things like plastic straws and bags, but the fact is that burning fossil fuels is rapidly destroying the planet and no amount of burning is sustainable. Banning that is table stakes.

Proposing to ban burning fossil fuels entirely is a great way to get very little support for your proposal.

Hence the decades of inaction and even subterfuge to prevent action.
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