The SITUATION:
X-Plane is doing well, but I want to see if I can push the current state of the art in HARDWARE forward a little bit as well. IF I can come up with a new plane that can benefit the aviation community, then I want to.
To do this, I give you the "Laminar Research X-1 Cavallo" ("Cavallo" is Italian for "Horse").
The CANDIDATES: Here are the 2 design starting-points I had in mind (both of these designs are now superceded by the links below)
The PLANE: Here is the plane I plan to build
The ENGINE: Here is the engine I have in mind
Now, lets talk about THE OBJECTIVES: (objectives 1 and 2 are being done as of this writing)
1: Design the plane I want to build by flying models of the above in X-Plane, submitted by multiple learned sources.
2: Fly the airplane in X-Plane to avaluate it.
2: Build it and fly it hither and yon across the country for personal, business, evaluation, and marketing purposes, documenting it and blogging about it like hell.
3: Present the plane to the public in as much detail as possible. As I use the plane for everyday travel, document this travel for the world to see, and demonstrate the aircraft performance to as many people as possible, I will decide whether it could profitable to make more of them. Interest from other people will help drive this decision. Full documentation on the plane and unfettered home-built flying of the plane will help drive this.
4: Build more of them as a home-built operation. I would establish a small factory at a little-used airport in South Carolina and bring people in to build their planes on-site. Professional staff would build 49% of the plane, the customer the other 51%. All parts, jigs, tools, and staff would be in-house the moment the customer shows up. He would live at the facility and work along an assembly-line to build his plane under guidance... and then fly it home when done.
Now, lets talk about THE CHECKLIST I will run to accomplish the objectives listed above... some items on this list have already been done, but I will leave the list here, even for things that have been done, so people can see what has been done so far.
=>PRELIM DESIGN:
Swift engineering is now doing a prelim design of the X-1 Cavallo, and has presented me with a prelim version of that design so I can evaluate it. This is simply a special proprietary Swift output that gives the external dimensions and expected weights, thrusts, fuel-consumptions, performance, etc. As well, Swift has given me an X-Plane acf file of the X-1, which I am using this file to fly the X-1 in X-Plane right now (and it is a blast). We still have to nail down some details on the engine thrust at altitude to see how fast this thing will go, which will help dictate my decision on whether or not to proceed with the project.
=>TROJAN-HORSE: (this is a wooden model of the airplane that we sit inside, and the airplane is called the 'Cavallo', so this mock-up is called the Trojan horse... get it?)
The TROJAN HORSE will be done by Excel Aviation in Utah. The TROJAN HORSE will be a mockup of the pressure vessel that is formed by putting a 4x8 piece of plywood (or two) on the ground in the exact shape of the floor-panel of the plane as determined by PRELIM DESIGN above, and using a C&C machine to cut RIBS out of plywood every 6 inches or so to exactly mimic the shape of the pressure vessel from the floor-panel up, from the forward to the aft pressure vessel bulkheads. Door frames will be framed out with plywood, and an instrument panel will be framed out with plywood. ACTUAL FLIGHT SEATS WILL BE INSTALLED IN THIS BUILD. Myself and a number of other people will sit in TROJAN HORSE (the wooden model of the airplane named after a horse that will invade future territories! har! I LOVE that name!), checking that the dimensions and access for the doors, seats, cabin, interior, baggage area, panel, cockpit, etc. We will do this by sitting in the actual flight-hardware seats surrounded by the plywood frames to see if the space inside the cabin, access to the instrument panel, access to the back seats, access to the baggage area, ingress and egress from the front and back seats are all desirable. NOTE: This will be a 2-door airplane, with symmetrical doors on either side, and access to the baggage compartment behind the back seats from the inside of the airplane. Seats will all be of the 'flip-forward' type to allow access to the back seats from the doors, and to the baggage area from the back! When we have climbed all about TROJAN HORSE in the actual flight-hardware seats and played with the instrument panel, ingress and egress, baggage-access, etc, we will either go BACK to "PRELIM DESIGN" above to change the dimensions of the plane, or proceed onwards down the checklist! I want this part done by May-1 of 2010.
=>COMPLETE DESIGN:
The complete design will probably be done by Swift as well, but I refer to the final designer here as 'bidder', because Swift has not yet been signed for the COMPLETE design... they are simply doing the PRELIM design now.
Bidder will do a COMPLETE design of the X-1. This should include every detail that can be planned in advance. This design must be done under the following constraints:
The bidder must expect to work with me, mostly by email but perhaps the occasional phone call or plant-visit at my expense, to iterate down on the design that we feel is best, presenting me with all reasonable options for materials, engines, control-systems, construction techniques, etc. Many materials and construction options should be presented to me for us to iterate down to the design that I think makes the perfect plane for me.
The bidder must demonstrate that it CAN obtain all parts needed to build this airplane. This must include the engine.
The bidder must agree that all information about the plane will be released to the public as soon as desired by me, in as much detail as desired by me, for the purposes of selling the idea of building their own copy of the airplane to as many people as possible. Certain proprietary information, such as airfoil shapes or trade-secrets, may be kept secret if specifically mentioned in an NDA. In other words, I must be allowed to disclose all of my information to the public, EXCEPT for information specifically agreed to as proprietary to protect the commercial interests of the bidder.
I will point out at this design-phase that I will not waste one penny on market studies. Anyone that believes a market study believes that people will ACTUALLY PUT THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS WHEN THE TIME COMES TO LAY THE CASH ON THE LINE AND PLACE THE ORDER. Anyone who believes that is easy to fool! We will build what >I< believe is the best airplane, with nothing more than me informally talking to people about what they get most excited about, and learning all I can about the technical details from other engineeers. AFTER that is done, I will tell everyone just EXACTLY what the plane REALLY IS, and THEN give people the chance to buy if they like it. Not one penny of deposits and not one order will be taken until one minute AFTER the performance of the plane is discovered, proven, and documented by flight-testing the prototype to my personal satisfaction.
=>SIMULATOR 1:
When the DESIGN is complete, SIMULATOR 1 will be built by Excel Aviation in Utah. SIMULATOR 1 will be a mockup of the pressure vessel that is built out of fiberglass laid into a mold made by a C&C machine that is fed the exact aircraft dimensions determined by earlier steps above. With the dimensions exactly defined and the C&C machine making an exact mold that defines the pressure-vessel from the floor-panel to the top, from the forward to the aft bulkhead, with all dimensions exactly matching the final plane, we will install the flight hardware seats into SIMULATOR 1 to re-test the ingress, egress, instrument-panel access, baggage-area access, and seating with a decent handful of people. If we are still happy with that shape, we will install mock-ups of or flight-versions of my avionics in the panel, controlled by X-Plane, of course, to act exactly like the avionics of the final aircraft. These avionics mock-ups will function identically to the final avionics, save for any improvements made over time. We will also put projectors around the front of SIMULATOR 1 to make it a flight simulator. At that point, SIMULATOR 1 will be an ergonomics and flight simulator for the X-1, to be used for ergonomics testing, public relations, avionics evaluation (as we fly the avionics in the sim!!!!), flight-training, and the coolest exhibit at Oshkosh 2010, in my humble opinion. I want this part done by JULY-1 of 2010.
=>BUILD-PREP:
Upon design approval by me (partially through the steps above), a bidder must PREPARE to build the plane. To do this, the bidder must obtain ALL the needed parts (engine, carbon-fibre, autoclaves, landing-gear systems, control-systems... you name it!) and have ALL of these parts in one place with the appropriate staff available to do the construction. This is the build PREP, NOT the build itself! This is having all the parts and people in one place to do the job, and that one place being a facility appropriate to do the build. I have written a computer program that will hopefully help with this job, mentioned in the 'production process' link above. This computer program will make it possible to have every bit of hardware and tooling ordered and waiting in the factory for me to show up and build it with experts showing me how. Though I do not currently know how to build an airplane, I will build at least 51% of THIS airplane! (Care to sit in the back on the first flight? ;-) ) This will require that the bidder provide builders to show me how the job is properly done, at least 8 hours per day, until the job is done. These people, and all needed tools and hardware, must be planned for arrival at the same moment at the build site, which will be somewhere in South Carolina. I will show up and construction will begin the moment 100% of the needed parts and tools are in place at the build facility in South Carolina.
=>CONSTRUCTION OF THE PROTOTYPE:
Upon completion of Build-prep, we move to construction. The bidder must allow me to show up and help with this for two reasons:
Only if I do 51% as defined by the FAA can this be a homebuilt, which I can then use to travel, test, evaluate, and demonstrate as I please (or so I currently understand... someone please correct me if I am wrong here). I must be able to USE the plane as a home-built for this project to be desirable to me.
Only if I am involved in the construction of the plane can I set up the facility and infrastructure and processes to build MORE of them later. I must be able to build MORE of these planes in the future for this project to be possibly profitable to me.
=>FLIGHT-TESTING OF THE PROTOTYPE: Here is the plan I have so far
=>PRODUCTION PLANNING: Here is the production software (WIZARD) that I have written so far
=>COMPANY EMPLOYEE PROFILE: Here are the positions and people publicly-discloseable as planned so far
=>ORDERING OF 1 PLANE PER CUSTOMER: Here is the purchase-agreement I have written so far
=>PRODUCTION OF 1 PLANE PER CUSTOMER: Here is the production process I have planned so far
=>TRAINING OF 1 PLANE PER CUSTOMER: Here is the flight-training protocol I have written so far
=>SUPPORT OF 1 PLANE PER CUSTOMER: Here is the support protocol I have written so far
=>WHERE OTHER COMPANIES SPEND MONEY:
So, there you have it... the crudest and vaguest set of steps ever... BUT, the beginning of a plan.
Where other companies pay many MILLIONS of dollars for their flight simulators, we will pay not a penny... just put in some sweat equity instead. (and we will have better sims)
Where other companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per airplane for avionics, we will use avionics that I create myself, with some sort of mostly-off-the-shelf touch-screens. (and we will have better avionics)
Where other companies spend large amounts on flight-data-recording hardware and software, we will pay next to nothing. (and have the tracking equipment built into EVERY PLANE for safety)
Where other companies spend MILLIONS of dollars in certification costs, we will have NONE. (and you will get to help build your airplane as well... amazingly FUN since it will be QUICK as you move down the assembly line, working with an expert at each station on the line, RAPIDLY assembling your plane!)
Where other companies spend MILLIONS of dollars keeping a large STAFF of people running at a lavish headquarters, we will have NONE until AFTER the first prototype is DONE with flight-test! (and all the subcontractors are able to work out of their home for the majority of the project)
Where other companies spend hundreds of thouands of dollars on production and business-management software, computers, and staff, I have written the entire business-management software suite over the new-years holidays and will run it on a few iMacs. (and the software is much more fun and easy to use than clumsy, bloated, old software running on creaky old mafunctioning Windows computers).
=>WHERE OTHER COMPANIES RUN THEIR AIRPLANE PROJECTS INTO THE GROUND:
Here is what has driven OTHER aircraft projects into the ground:
-Manufacturer PROMISES specific performance, price, and delivery times. When those targets are NOT hit, the customers become unhappy and no longer want the plane. If the inflated promises had never been made in the first place, this never would have been a problem! (When have I ever promised something will be in X-Plane and then failed to deliver? When? in 20 years? When? Never. That's when. Never. In this project, I will PROMISE YOU NOTHING. But I will TELL YOU EVERYTHING.)
-Manufacturer does tremendous MARKET RESEARCH to see what kind of plane customer wants. Customer wants a jet! Customer wants to fly 2,000 miles un-refueled! Customer wants to carry 6 passengers! Customer wants to go Mach 0.99! Such a plane will cost $100 million? Customer claims HE WOULD BUY SUCH AN AIRPLANE! Now, how many people will actually DO it? If you believe that one thousand random people saying "I would pay $100 million for the airplane above!" means that one thousand random people would pay $100 million for the airplane above, then you are foolish! But THAT is "market research". Market researching is believing that people will actually put their money where their mouth is when the chips are down. Could you SERIOUSLY bet a business on that!?!??!?!!? Eclipse certainly did plenty of market research!
-Manufacture does not know how to make a simulator for his airplane, so he goes to someone else to build big motion sims... they cost $10 million each. (X-Plane runs $29 and looks and flies better)
-Manufacture does not know how to make avionics for his airplane, so he goes to someone else to build avionics. Did you know the Eclipse does not have a moving map? Did you know the Eclipse does not an autopilot that can fly a VOR radial or GPS course? Did you know the eclipse does not have a GPS?
-Manufacturer plans to certify airplane. Manufacturer creates grand Palace of Production to build THOUSANDS of airplanes. Employs huge staff of people that need a check every single month, whether a single airplane is built or not. FAA inspector finds a TEENY change that he wants in the airplane, and requires that this small change be made. (The color of the light-bulb for the flap-indicator in a certain single-engine plane, for example) Designing, ordering, fabricating, testing, receiving, installing, and flight-testing this new component might take ONE PERSON TWO MONTHS. That is 2 man-months. OK. BUT THE WHOLE HUGE STAFF OF THE HUGE PRODUCTION FACILITY IS TWIDDLING THEIR THUMBS, ON THE PAYROLL, ACCOMPLISHING NOTHING, WAITING FOR THIS ONE TINY PART! It winds up costing a hundreds of thousands of dollars to change a light bulb color. I am not kidding. That has happened.
=>SUMMARY:
Anyhoo, these are some of the things that make it painful and expensive to build airplanes... I think my plan gracefully slides around them. At the end of the day, I hope to have an affordable jet that you can come to South Carolina and build!
austin