New commuter aircraft

gkainz

gkainz

Final Approach
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
8,401
Location
Arvada, CO
Display Name
Greg Kainz
Home Airfield
KBJC
got this in an email this morning
------------------------------
Make you wonder what could be done today if someone resurrected the design of this craft:

http://www.wimp.com/flyingmachine/

More info:

“It was evaluated by the U.S. Army in the 1980s, and was deemed inferior to the capabilities of helicopters and small unmanned aircraft.” –Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_X-Jet
---------------------------------------

my response:

I want one … a great commuter vehicle!

Home to work, rough estimate straight line – 30 miles

from the wiki post:

30 minute flight time at advertised top speed of 60 mph

WASP I with WR19-9 BRP5 engine has a SFC of .47lbs/lb/hr and max thrust rating 670 lbst

Full thrust .47lbs Jet A/670 lbst/30 minutes … 157.45 lbs of Jet A

Jet A is 6.79 lbs/gal so 23.2 gallons consumed for each leg

Jet A today at Jeffco Airport is $7.33 per gallon

Back and forth to work would only cost me $340 per day.

Since I'm a software engineer and not a rocket scientist, somebody double-check my interpretation of SFC
 
You'd think with todays gyro-stabilizers and computer controls that you could make a thing like that flyable. I doubt you could get the price tag down to anything anyone could afford, though.
 
Imagine the road rage if people were being jerks in these.. cooking each other in the exhaust

:P
 
Looks amusing.

It's hard to imagine a neighborhood that would tolerate that thing. It needs to come with ak-ak countermeasures.
 
Everskyward said:
You could save some money by buying your JetA at KAPA where it is $4.35/gal. Wow, that is a big difference.
Click to expand...

Big difference! The $7.33 was from a quick glance at Foreflight - but your note made me look at second opinions... airnav says "call for price" hmmm ...

oh well ... $4.35 would make my commute a much more reasonable $202/day. :D
 
Last edited:
It's like a flying Segway but less practical....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top