Fancy building your own jet?

[fastfreddy]

"The SubSonex is a small, single-seat jet designed to provide high performance in an airplane that fits in your garage. Of course, there is some assembly required. But that, and the $60,000 price tag, is a small price to pay for the thrill of a lifetime."

Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/01/diy-jet-almos...

[dudleybloke]

looks a lot of fun

[roryfizz]

I want!! but cant help thinking it would be far more aerodynamic to have it built into the aircraft, lightning esque?! mige make maintenance more tricky tho!

[Snoggledog]

Jet powered beer cooler hth.

[pacman1]

On the second start up, you could clearly hear the piezo ignition. Sounded like my gas cooker!

[Oily Nails]

Jesus its 1933 again only this time its jet powered!!!


'Flying Flea' 1933



'Subsonex' 2010


Whats the link? Both DIY and both will have a number of very public deaths of semi-wealth buyers....


And anyway this is already in production but is banned by in a number of Airspaces (including UK)


'Bede BD-5' 2006


So the chances of the 'Subsonex' getting flight approval in the USA let alone UK is highly unlikely.

Edited by Oily Nails on Tuesday 6th April 18:46

[Dr Jekyll]

What does a second hand Jet Provost go for these days?

[bertie]

Home built jet......I have almost never heards 3 words more firghtening!

[anonymous-user]

Oily Nails said:

And anyway this is already in production but is banned by in a number of Airspaces (including UK)


'Bede BD-5' 2006

I thought Bede went bust years ago.

[Lefty Two Drams]

el stovey said:

Oily Nails said:

And anyway this is already in production but is banned by in a number of Airspaces (including UK)


'Bede BD-5' 2006

I thought Bede went bust years ago.

+1

Also thought they only ever made a handful.

[Lefty Two Drams]

I think I'd rather have a twin-engined one for a better sense of security to be honest.

And they'd need to be as close together as possible so if one went out you wouldn't have an awful yaw control problem.

:scratchcin:

In fact:



Make it look like this (at maybe 1/3) scale and you're all set!

[Oily Nails]

TBH if I was looking for a small jet aircraft I'd put down a deposit for one of these....



Cirrus 'Vision'

Seats up to 7 (2 pilots)
300 Knots Cruising Speed
1000 Nautical Mile range

Price tag: $1.75 Million USD (approx £1.13 million GBP)

[Lefty Two Drams]

A lot of the vlbj firms are in trouble these days I think. Struggling to find customers and the finance to fund the r+d and manufacturing set up costs.

Shame as they're a nice idea.

If I wanted a fast plane I'd buy a P-51

[bertie]

The only viable VLBJ I'd be prepared to put my money into would be a Citation Mustang.

As has been said, a lot of the prices being bandied about are totally unrealistic and then the company folds, happened a few times.

[ninja-lewis]

Lefty Two Drams said:

I think I'd rather have a twin-engined one for a better sense of security to be honest.

And they'd need to be as close together as possible so if one went out you wouldn't have an awful yaw control problem.

Probably a waste of time. A Canadian study of their CF-18s found that twin engine configurations like that are not significantly more reliable - whatever problem took out one engine usually took out the other as well.

[Papoo]

Lefty Two Drams said:

A lot of the vlbj firms are in trouble these days I think. Struggling to find customers and the finance to fund the r+d and manufacturing set up costs.

Shame as they're a nice idea.

If I wanted a fast plane I'd buy a P-51

They would, undoubtedly be a a great success if they weren't essentially useless.

By that, I mean that for various reasons (certification being a biggie) the versatility of all of these VLJs has been removed. There are light piston twins which have a greater useful load and range. Even the Citation Mustang (which is a lot bigger than the likes of the Cirrus V and the Eclipse 500) just seems utterly pointless.

Basically there is always a trade-off between range and useful load in these aircraft. While it may state that the range is x and the useful load is y, to achieve x, the useful load will be substantially less than y. Atop this, they haven't got certain certification which allows them to fly at the altitudes where jets want to be.

As you say, it is a nice idea, and I'm certain that the next decade will prove to sort all this out. At which point, they'll sell like hot-cakes.

For now, conventional small business jets (eg. Lear 35, Citation CE-500/525 series) are still offering far more bang for the buck; performing like jet-engined aircraft.

I think the Embraer Phenom series is interesting. It is a composite lightweight design, with a beautifully integrated flight deck not too dissimilar to what you'd find on a light piston twin.

[jonnyye]

Dr Jekyll said:

What does a second hand Jet Provost go for these days?

A good friend of mine has taken me up in his Provost. He has shared ownership of it , dont think it the purchase of the jet that the problem ,think it more the running costs . Could ask him for a rough breakdown if you interested .

[Dr Jekyll]

jonnyye said:

Dr Jekyll said:

What does a second hand Jet Provost go for these days?

A good friend of mine has taken me up in his Provost. He has shared ownership of it , dont think it the purchase of the jet that the problem ,think it more the running costs . Could ask him for a rough breakdown if you interested .

Thanks but it isn't really relevant. I just wanted to make a comparison with the price of the homebuilt jet.

[Ayahuasca]

Isn't the jet exhaust a bit close to the elevators in 'up' position? Pull back on the stick and you might do a quick backflip before the elevators are burned off.