YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

Re:YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “f... by mpweiher on Friday March 08, 2019 @06:04AM (#19336579)

> [small jet engines, price, piston engines for GA]

Another important reason is fuel consumption. Jet engines in general are extremely thirsty, AFAIK the only reason they became (unexpectedly!) competitive with piston engines is that they allow the planes to fly so much higher where the air is thinner.

In addition, small turbines are even less efficient than big ones.

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Re:YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “f... by rplnt on Friday March 08, 2019 @06:47AM (#19336751)

And all GA jet engines now are turbofans with high bypass ratios. Not something you can do at small scale. Would have guessed the relative speed they operate at also plays a role. And wouldn't this require quick changes in thrust? Not sure that heavy big diameter fans could do that.

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Re:YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “f... by darkpuma on Friday March 08, 2019 @08:19AM (#19337220)

Are GA turbofans really more common than GA turboprops?

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Re:YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “f... by rplnt on Friday March 08, 2019 @10:06AM (#19338093)

Oh, my bad. I did not mean GA, but commercial passenger airplanes. As opposed to military jets.

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