Hi guys, I´m Carlos, from the Phenix project.
First I´d like to say that all pics on the website belong to the prototype we took to the Aero exhibition in Germany last april. Many things were missing then as we had no time to finish it for the show. We´ve been working hard since then to finalise the aircraft and get it into the air.
At present we are about a month away from first flight tests.
Answering some of your questions:
- We will have a tail protection on the central fin.
- Yes we know there is a lot of weight on the front leg and it has been properly calculated. However in the next model we are going to change the position of the main undercarriage 30 centimeters (a foot roughly) to the aft. The original idea of positioning it so far back was related to the fact that we didn´t want the mast to stand right in the middle of the cabin, obstructing passenger view. The only way to achieve that was carrying as much weight we could to the rear sections (one of the reasons for the parachute). Luckily on the latest hang test we were very happy to discover that we even had to bring the mast more to the rear (8 centimeters from original position) so now it does not interfere at all.
- According to the figures we got from the parachute manufacturer (Junkers Profly) for our particular model (Magnum 450), we calculated an impact speed to the ground of aproximately 30 kilometers per hour. All items involved with this impact speed and higher for a convenient safety factor, have been designed to be able to protect the passengers (engine mount, firewall, 4 point safety belts, etc.)
We are sure that we may have to change some things in the future, this is just the prototype and that´s what it´s meant for. We plan to fly it extensively to obtain all the information we need to produce a safe aircraft in serial in a near future.
Thank you for your interest in our project and your kind words. We will try to update our website once we get in the air and start getting feefback from the tests.
If you have any more questions I´ll be glad to clarify any doubts.
Carlos