n_ermosh

6 ms·

31.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
thanks! > In practically every example so far in aviation, adding automation makes things harder, not easier. While somewhat unsatisfying as an answer, I think the industry has done it wrong, exactly because the result was harder, not ea
32.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
It's solved for the "cruise in a straight line" sense, but for emergencies or much more dynamic situations like a final approach, autopilots don't really help all that much. We can set up our VNAV and everything, but the
33.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
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 fly
34.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
True--but those are quite rare compared to other sources of fatal accidents. And if it does happen, we have the full airplane parachute to bring the airplane safely to the ground
35.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
> It feels like the real problem in this industry is lack of competition. There’s a chicken and egg problem: planes are expensive because so few people buy them, but so few people buy them because they’re expensive. 100%. We're here
36.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
Yes, lowering all operating expenses by moving to more efficient engines and greener propulsion systems is on our roadmap as "the next problem"
37.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
> If you take optimizing transportation options as a holistic problem, rather than focusing on any individual user who needs to travel those 50-500 km distances, more trains is a far more straightforward and efficient investment than fly
38.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
thanks! Yes, it's that entire helmet-fire that makes flying hard and often dangerous. But what the accident data shows is that these kinds of problems that you mention occur, and then the pilot loses control of the plane. If we give th
39.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
thanks! We are creating a complete "managed ownership" experience, so that fractional ownership is super easy too
40.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
You're totally right the cost is the driver right now. Our goal is to get the market of people who don't fly planes right now into it so that with economies of scale, we can drive prices down. On our roadmap is an airplane that co
41.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
Growing GA should also create a pipeline for commercial pilots which we desperately need. But let's be honest, flying commercial is a pretty poor experience. Getting to a major airport, getting through security, waiting to board, and t
42.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
I hope so! That's definitely a use case we want to see happen, but when you start charging people for flights things get... complicated
43.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
yep! lots of interesting stuff indeed! Our plane will be ~7 gph at cruise burning unleaded fuels and fly ~170mph over the ground (with no wind)
44.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
our system has a complete picture of what airports exist in the vicinity and can plan a path to get their fairly trivially. ATC communication can be done by the system automatically as a "broadcast only" emergency message with it&
45.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
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
46.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
Our goal is to get to the same level of safety as (if not safer than) automotive. There are some issues that we don't immediately address including engine failures, but at the same time, most of the stats are based on engines that were
47.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
We are concerned about that too. Our first airplane, the Airhart Sling uses unleaded fuel. In future models, we will be investing into greener propulsion tech.
48.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
Our early model you see here will use unleaded fuel rather than traditional low-lead fuel used in aviation today. The master plan is to use the scale we will create in this new market and invest it into green propulsion tech for our future
49.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
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.
50.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
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.
51.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
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
52.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
Eventually, it might be. Currently, the US airspace system could handle ~10x the GA traffic we have today (I'm basing this on the fact that when we were building it up in the 70s, we were selling and flying ~10x more airplanes than we
53.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
They don't necessarily have to learn in an old school plane. In fact, our early adopters who aren't pilots will be getting their flight training through us in an Airhart airplane (included in the purchase of the airplane) In the n
54.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
thanks! initially we'll be working with existing systems (specifically, a Rotax 916iS) which has an almost-FADEC, but we're adding our own systems on top of it to add push to start, full control of the throttle, automated restart
55.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
> there is certainly a lot to improve in that regard even if the end result isn't a huge increase in the number of family roadtrips taken in personal aircraft. that's kind of how I see it too, the failed version of this is that
56.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
thanks! my hope is to eventually make you a well informed airling!
57.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
I love this guy. trains solve all the worlds problems :) His discussion is focused a bit more on europe which I think is a very different environment than the US. We don't have trains and want to go larger distances more regularly. We
58.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
thanks! I 100% agree with your comments. > anything that helps to simplify aircraft operations may decrease cognitive load and is therefore welcome. exactly. decreasing cognitive load is very important and I think we as existing pilots t
59.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
> If your system can reliably prevent base-final stall spins then that would clearly be awesome. This was actually a core inspiration for this project. A student on his first solo at an airport north of me crashed on his base to final tu
60.
by n_ermosh 2y ago
100% agreed. I'd love a high speed rail system in the US. but we're engineers not politicians :)

More ›