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Re:YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “f... by areoform on Thursday March 07, 2019 @11:56PM (#19335205)
I suspect that what they're offering is not only feasible but achievable with modern technology. The glut of cheap sensors and research into dynamic, multi-axis control thanks to drones makes it easier for something like this to come into being. However, I am skeptical about their ability to build something that can fly for a long distance due to the low energy density of current technology. Even with a gas powered turbine system, their efficiency is capped at around 30%? Theoretically, heat recovery can boost that to 85%, but that equipment is heavy and it's complicated to mount https://www.wbdg.org/resources/microturbines . I don't know the answer to this question but I do hope that they find out!

Good luck guys! You're solving some really Hard problems here.

Re:YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “f... by dmayman on Friday March 08, 2019 @12:27AM (#19335341)
Thank you, yes we really are but it’s cool to do. We should achieve up to 30mins endurance with exiting engines and if we move to a turbofan than 2-3 x that is possible