Nah! Me too :-) Lets see Continental got.. was it 20 million?... for the

diesel

no where in sight. Williams got 100 million for the cheap turbo fan no

where

in sight. Will the excesses of NASA never stop? :-)

Well as long as they issue parachutes to all 500 passengers I see no
problem with a blended wing design. I wonder what it would do if it
ran into a cell like Marcia just experienced on her way from Texas
to Florida in a 737.

Paul Lamar

Continental is flying one of their diesels and has a lot of test stand

time.

The third generation running jet engine prototype was a OSH last yr.
These efforts might fail on their own, but they do seem to be producing
real hardware.  No need to exaggerate.  Bill Freeman

You're right.  Williams succeeded in their effort.  It's just that they
aren't going to make their jet available generally -- it'll be exclusive to
the Eclipse (which Williams owns a subtantial part of).  As you say . . . no
need to exaggerate, the whole thing stinks to high heaven without
exaggeration.

And this is just the engines!!  What about the avionics effort.  Millions to
these small players like Archangel, Avidyne and Avro-Tec and they haven't
produced a thing that is even close to the AGATE Highway in the Sky concept
or that has a chance of being certified (these clowns run on NT).  In the
meantime, Sierra Flight Systems, on their own nickel, has accomplished all of
the above and more.

The whole thing is a giant misuse of public funds.
Hornet Ball

I might add.... your nickel Hornet Ball :-). More power to you buddy. Keep up
the good work. Have you looked at Linux yet? :-)

Paul Lamar

  I tend to agree that using public money often generates useless crap.  If it
is going to make a profit, somebody will fund it.   OTOH, if they DO
manage to produce something useful, we need to acknowledge that.  The
one area of probable benefit of research with public funding is for
truly basic research where the payoff is so far down the road that it
is difficult to see it, and therefore difficult to get funded.   Also, if
done correctly (NACA) the research info is out there for everyone to
use and "a rising (knowledge) tide floats all boats".

Still can't figure out how Cont is going to start their diesel in "real
life".

Bill
Long EZ builder & pilot
mechanical engineer

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