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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

#51

Post by n_ermosh »

catchmeifyoucan wrote: post #46

I got my PPL a while ago, and I'm super excited about this! Though, I'm mostly a renter, so I may not be of much support to purchase at $500,000. This would be quite the upgrade from a 1980's Cessna. I guess we'll have to wait for the new standards, but things like learning about the engine, stall recovery and crosswinds are a pretty major part of aviation training. Though the plane can do these things, I'm not sure…

congrats on the PPL! we understand that 500k is a high price point for a lot of people (but still cheaper than a new SR20 and we have the same performance and better fuel economy), but our goal is to get to a scale where our 3rd model costs 1. the flight controller is triply redundant, so it's basically 3 flight controllers and any 2 can fail and the system will still function (though with a greater risk posture as you now don't know if that 3rd one is giving correct information. There's also an emergency reversionary mode to fly the airplane directly without the flight controller in the loop

2. We don't think that a direct override is necessary or even recommended. We're relying on the fact that we have multiple sensors, flight computers, and servos to make sure that the probability of being wrong is 3. We are exploring this possibility. If you are genuinely interested, fill out the contact form on our website and we'll talk.

4. Thanks! we are actively debating making this a standalone radio product for any airplane to replace an existing comm radio

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

#52

Post by phkahler »

BWStearns wrote: post #29

Always happy to see new GA aircraft, and the tech here looks very cool. The emergency autoland and chute will definitely be lifesavers. If your system can reliably prevent base-final stall spins then that would clearly be awesome. One thing that jumped out at me is what are you trading to get that protection? While I have no issues with fly by wire, I'd be nervous about a GA aircraft that's overly opinionated about w…

>> If your system can reliably prevent base-final stall spins then that would clearly be awesome.

I keep thinking we need more canard aircraft - they don't stall. Most of them are designed with laminar flow wings and no flaps, so landing speeds are higher which makes them less safe and not good for grass strips. I'd like to see a stall-free aircraft without those drawbacks of canards.

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

#53

Post by n_ermosh »

BWStearns wrote: post #43
n_ermosh wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I've found my GA flying to really be about trips that you _wouldn't have made otherwise_, but the biggest barrier is cost. I've done little adventure trips with my wife that were super fun and without a PPL we wouldn't have done the equivalent. But when it comes to boring stuff it's just too expensive to justify flying so the trips don't happen (since I have to rent). My suspicion is that the middle of the Venn diagr…

Cost is definitely a barrier and our long term goal is the get down to a plane that costs <$100k. getting there is incremental, this is just our first product to start wedging our way into the market.

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

#54

Post by yogurtboy »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #50
stetrain wrote: post #27

> In the US, trips that are 50-300 miles are almost all done by car because that distance is too short for commercial airlines and too far for public transportation. A bit off-topic but this is a political problem, not a technical one. Trips of 50-300 miles are certainly within the operating range of fast and efficient rail travel as demonstrated in multiple places around the world outside of the US.

It's not just a political problem. It's also a legal one due to the property rights involved.

In this case, as in many others, political problems are just legal problems at scale.

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

#55

Post by n_ermosh »

dwighttk wrote: post #48
n_ermosh wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

once you get to wanting to travel about 150 miles, the time savings do start kicking in, even if you assume 30-45 minutes of getting to the airport, preflight, etc. The benefit of a small airplane is that at small airports, getting from walking up to the airplane and then into the air can be pretty quick. And part of our goal is the automate as much of the prelight process as possible, wherever we can do it safely

If you succeed in making this all easy, won’t these small airports fill up with planes?

We will eventually hit a limit to the current infrastructure, but based on where the GA market was in the 70s when a lot of the small airports were built, we estimate we can handle ~10x the number of planes we do today.

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

#56

Post by s1k3s »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #50
stetrain wrote: post #27

> In the US, trips that are 50-300 miles are almost all done by car because that distance is too short for commercial airlines and too far for public transportation. A bit off-topic but this is a political problem, not a technical one. Trips of 50-300 miles are certainly within the operating range of fast and efficient rail travel as demonstrated in multiple places around the world outside of the US.

It's not just a political problem. It's also a legal one due to the property rights involved.

Can't the US govt buy back any land they want for infrastructure? I mean forcibly buy back.

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

#58

Post by asimpletune »

These are the kinds of problems, when I was younger, I always imagined the tech industry would be solving. This is just so cool. Congratulations to you and your team and I really hope a future of small, safe, and affordable personal aircrafts becomes a reality!

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

#59

Post by Majestic121 »

While I think the project is pretty cool, I can't shake the pollution side of things out of my mind.

Air transport is one of the most polluting ways to travel, and I would expect a single person airplane is even worse than a full A380.

Is there anything you're doing to alleviate this issue ?

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

#60

Post by michaelmior »

This looks really cool! I'm curious if you're able to share any details on how you plan to manage autonomous landing. There are obviously a lot of moving parts there from communicating with ATC, finding a safe landing zone, actually bringing the plane down, and I'm sure many other things I haven't thought of as a non-pilot.
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