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If you like that, check out the Winnebago Heli-Home.[0] It actually flew. [0] https://www.thedrive.com/news/34753/the-winnebago-heli-home-was-a-real-flying-rv-

• ljf 5y ago
  Cheers that was too interesting not to post! Looks amazing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29361699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29361699
  • bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
    I first learned about it on HN so credit’s due to that OP!
• dylan604 5y ago
  Everyone of my family members that owned an RV has said that gas mileage was aweful. I'm wondering what would be worse, this heli-home or a regular RV. How much advantage of being able to travel in the literal "as a crow flies" distances vs ground roads, price of regular fuel vs aviation fuel, etc. However, at least in an RV, you don't need sound deadening headphones and intercoms the entire time of travel.
  • t0mas88 5y ago
    For a mid sized helicopter like this, you can expect around 40 gallon per hour and a speed of about 100 mph. So I don't think this is a solution to the RV fuel consumption problem.
    • GekkePrutser 5y ago
      Jet-A1 is a lot cheaper though than unleaded petrol or car diesel at least here in Europe. Especially because it's untaxed. Still it works out much more expensive for the chopper obviously. Those really guzzle it. And this one looks so old that might be piston based in which case it would probably run on avgas which is a lot more expensive than car fuel.
      • p_l 5y ago
        Tax depends on who is buying, usually. IIRC in Poland private plane owners who are not buying through airclub pay tax on fuel, but airclubs don't, which results in every non-road-legal 4 stroke engine on airfield running on AVGAS-100LL ;)
        • GekkePrutser 5y ago
          Seriously?? I thought Avgas is still much more expensive than regular unleaded fuel. It sure was when I flew but I'm not sure whether we were paying taxes. We bought it through the airclub but it was not a commercial club. So we probably did pay it. But we paid something like 3,50 euro per liter and this was when regular petrol prices were 1,50 or so. I was told it's so expensive because the special production: They add dehumidifying agents against condensation etc. I heard a lot of clubs are going for turbodiesel conversions now but the problem is that they have to be completely replaced every X years, they can't just do an engine overhaul like they can on the old Lycoming avgas engines.
          • p_l 5y ago
            Sounds like you were paying AVGAS price + taxes, at least given typical petrol prices in EU. At least in Poland, the situation is that if both are without taxes, then AVGAS is more expensive than car petrol. But taxes add enough on top that taxed car petrol is more expensive than untaxed avgas. This meant that non-airclub planes had significant amount of car petrol conversions done, but aircraft that could be fueled through Polish Aero Club didn't bother. At the airfield I learnt to fly gliders, even the utility car (used among other things for dragging winch wire back to start) was fueled with avgas-100ll, except we also modded it with LPG system that was fueled by normal kitchen gas bottle. The hand-pushed grass mower also ran on avgas :D only the winch and old ursus tractor used diesel due to engine type involved.
      • t0mas88 5y ago
        It's only untaxed for commercial operators, not for your own helicopter or airplane.
  • deleted 5y ago
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  • fy20 5y ago
    European diesel RVs get around 25 MPG (US). That's better than a Ford F150.
• GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Lone Starr would love that!