Willie Anderson wrote:

I'm guessing that this company is DragonAero (formerly of Illinois,
now from the homebuilt hotbed, Florida); see web page:

http://www.dragonaero.com/frames/frames_products.htm

I had a brief conversation with one of the principals of this
company; he told me that the 20b "clone" is the "Millenium engine",
actually an "adiabatic" engine designed to run at very high temp,
and would produce 200 to 600 (!) HP with a "wet weight" of about 250
pounds.  Hmm.  My skepticism meter got pegged at that point. Not
that any of this is impossible (heck, just look what you can do with
a 13b and turbos), but it is dubious that a small firm still looking
for funding for the numerical milling machines is going to have the
wherewithall to pull it off. Sounds more like a $100M R&D effort to
me.

They also have a design for a 4 place canard, the Dragonfire (using
their Millenium mill), which is designed to be a NASA AGATE-type
aircraft, cruse at TAS of 350+ and be a certified aircraft (not a
kit or plans) deliverable at arount $90K!

Oh well, the world does need dreamers, and at least this company
isn't taking earnest money for kits, it is soliciting high-risk
investment capital. Still, wouldn't you love it if it were true? And
at least the guys had the good sense to use a 20b as their base
design.

Willie Anderson

 
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