When someone claims to have made a radical improvement in a mature field, It is reasonable to ask why other engineers have not thought of it before, at least i

When someone claims to have made a radical improvement in a mature field, It is reasonable to ask why other engineers have not thought of it before, at least if it is not based on newly-discovered science or a technical breakthrough. The fact is that none of the features given in the article are novel, so why have they not been combined before? Some of them were, in fact, in the Republic XF-12 [1], and the idea of using a diesel with much more turbo-charging than is usual, as an aero engine, was seen in the Napier Nomad [2] (it was actually a two-stroke turbo compound, with, in one version, a sort of afterburner between the diesel and turbine stages!) The usual experience of putting together several different incremental changes is that there are unanticipated problems, and the whole is less than the sum of the parts. While I am skeptical that this airplane will deliver on its promises, I do not want to be entirely negative. It is possible that changing circumstances have produced an opportunity that was neither recognized or exploitable before. Once gas turbines were developed, progress on piston aero-engines essentially came to a halt, but piston engines continued to be developed for cars, at least following the oil crises of the 70s, so that piston engines are now much more efficient, lighter and, importantly, reliable than they were (even diesels.) These developments have been making their way into aviation, but so far almost exclusively in the niches where piston engines were still being used. Another development has been the use of composites, which permit the development of effective laminar-flow airfoils (several WWII-era aircraft nominally had such wings, but there is considerable doubt as to their effectiveness, as it is difficult to make metal wings to the stringent tolerances needed.) This capability has been used in sailplanes for decades, but is only slowly extending beyond that niche (more so now that electric airplanes are feasible.) AFAIK, the Boeing Condor drone is the only piston-engined airplane to reach 65,000 feet, and the closest piloted flights have been some 15,000 feet short, but if this project can get a piston-engined, payload-carrying airplane cruising at that altitude without too many compromises, I think it has a chance of making a difference. The retro-futuristic appearance of this prototype is probably mostly incidental. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-12_Rainbow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-12_Rainbow [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Nomad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Nomad