Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by robriggen 4710 days ago
This comment misses the point and doesn't compare apples with apples. This is a 2 seat aircraft designed to operate in the Light Sport category which is very different from an Ultralight. Light Sport aircraft cost $70k and up.
2 comments
chuckd1356 4710 days ago
You can purchase a Cessna 150 for under $15k. And that's not a light sport.
link
imbriaco 4710 days ago
You should also point out that's a 20 year old Cessna 150.
link
fr0sty 4710 days ago
The last Cessna 150 was made in 1977 so it would be at least 35 years old.
link
TheAnimus 4710 days ago
And so what! The engine certainly would be more modern. I just had some excellent fun flying in a Piper Cub on Sunday, it's about 3 times my age. Planes are not like cars, entire chunks of them are replaced on a regular basis materials prone to rust and similar corrosion aren't normally used.

It was my first time flying such a primitive old plane and honestly I hadn't had such fun since my first solo. I was walking round with such a grin.

Old planes aren't bad at all. They are tried and tested, meanwhile this design doesn't exactly look as modern as a Diamond or similar cheap to run glider-come-airplane so it's hard to be excited in all honesty.

link
seanc722 4710 days ago
Agreed. It's amazing the conditions of some of the Cessna's that come in to where I work... It's often insanely difficult to tell how old it is just by looking at it (Though not every aircraft is taken care of the same).
link
mikeash 4710 days ago
There are reasons why LSAs cost $70k. They're not looking to fly anything until 2015, and that's lots of time for reality to seep in. I wouldn't be surprised if they discovered that $15k was optimistic by a factor of about 5....
link
jamie_ca 4710 days ago
You can buy a recent Quad City Challenger kit for much less than that, and even fully assembled by someone else you're looking in the $30k range http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_City_Challenger#cite_note-...

I'm assuming they're planning on making it a partial kit, and if you're expected to 3d print some of the parts $15k for "other" supplies (mostly avionics and engine) sounds pretty reasonable to me.

link