Kolibri;n1137668 said:
fara, because you left it so vague, please just answer the below two questions:
1) you have a degree in Mechanical Engineering?
2) you used that ME degree knowledge in testing 304 SS against 4130 chrome-moly for gyro mast material life cycle?
You keep referring to having designed aircraft and gotten them certified.
You're talking about your trikes, correct?
Regarding Silverlight Aviation, I've heard that Greg Spicolli is the designer, and that you're not even a rated gyro pilot.
Please correct any misinformation relayed to me about that.
And isn't the AR-1 essentially a copy of the Apollo AG1 from Hungary, a gyro that you did not design and which already had a stainless steal mast?
In fact, the AR-1 is such a faithful copy that you still use metric bolts, even though your Florida factory suffers no supply issue of AN hardware.
___________
My point in these posts is to illustrate the copy of a copy of a copy nature of too many gyros on the market,
as well as challenge the "Well, it's always been done it that way!" philosophy of most gyro kit mfg.
Thanks,
Kolibri
Kolibiri:
AR-1 is certainly based from an AG-1. No doubt abut it and I have never hidden that fact but its not a faithful copy. Very sorry to disappoint you. You have never seen the two side by side and carefully examined them. There are tons of differences including dimensions of the frame and geometry, including where tail is in height, including mast height and including keel tube position from the datum in relation to rest of the frame and including slight changes to the body and of course the tail. and front fork (which honestly was inspired by Titanium gyroplane but not copied from it), including front seat frame and its actual composite seat that we changed drastically based on customer input and including geometrical differences in the rotorhead mechanisms. All the trim system and rotor brake mechanism was re-designed and made electro-mechanical instead of pneumatic that to me looked troublesome and not appropriate for a recreational aircraft. And no there are no metric bolts on AR-1 structure except of course for Rotax engines and for Averso rotor.
We use AN hardware and some industrial fasteners that are all not metric. You really shouldn't talk about stuff you have no idea about. Seriously dude, get a different hobby than arguing incessantly.
In reference to the photo of the very early mast of an early AR-1 you posted, I completely agree that even though structurally the welding is fine, its appearance is not to the standard I wanted for our product, because that is all what people see. The welding at that time was outsourced to a sub-contractor and was later brought in house and the quality of its appearance and of the whole fabrication quickly got higher by a few notches as anyone with any eye for such things can easily tell. That was the main point to bring that process in house where I could control it under my nose and up our game to world class in both structural and process but also in fit and finish and we did and we are upping our game further everyday with the help of our staff and using materials like carbon fiber and kevlar/carbon within the main body now to reduce weight, improve aesthetics while keeping the strength.
Besides trikes which honestly structurally are closer to gyroplanes, I have worked on two airplane designs heavily. I have worked on certifying in a significant capacity 4 other airplanes as well. Searey being fairly public knowledge so I can tell you without violating my NDA that Searey's whole certification (including all design changes to get it to that point) were lead by me and I lead the whole project for SLSA with a 5 person 7 day FAA AIR-200 audit in the end, when FAA was heavily disappointed in LSA industry and Searey was the first plane in 2.5 years of them doing audits for LSA industry to pass the audit without first failing it. The likes of planes that had failed the FAA audit included big names like Tecnam, Rans aircraft and every other audit FAA had conducted so far. FAA was impressed enough that FAA Small Aircraft Branch in Kansas recommended Searey's then CEO Adam Yang for LAMA's person of the year award. Shortly after that I took Searey through a Type Certification with CAAC in Bejing and then a production Certification with CAAC. We were the first American made SLSA to be exported to China. There are 50+ Searey's ordered from China because of that. I have long left that project. The price of the Type Certificated Searey in China is $80k more than SLSA one in the US.
https://www.bydanjohnson.com/searey-...omes-slsa-129/
https://generalaviationnews.com/2013...arey-shepherd/
https://www.bydanjohnson.com/searey-...o-enter-china/
https://www.bydanjohnson.com/new-sea...-of-get-up-go/
Others I cannot talk too much about because of NDAs. Even today I have side projects of helping 3 airplanes do either design changes and testing or consulting in manufacturing system setup to pass FAA muster. One being a popular twin engine experimental airplane. I try and do that on the weekends. One significant one I can just mention is American Legend SuperCub clone including the amphibian package with water loads etc. Cannot give you any more details.
Where did you hear that Greg Spicola is the designer? Why is that even a point for you to come up with? I am very surprised. Its no one's business who the designer or designers are. Its SilverLight Aviation. If I left SilverLight Aviation today, the design of AR-1 belongs to SilverLight Aviation. Not even me. That's an emphatic fact and the rest is bull. The company owns the design. That's how a normal business works. Just like Searey belongs to Progressive Aerodyne not to Kerry Richter personally. There have been many contributions along the way, including young engineers from USF and UCF who worked on it with us and some were very smart and some may be not as much. But they are all valuable and in service of SilverLight Aviation, the company and the brand. I just happen to be its face right now as its major shareholder and manager. You'd get closer to the facts if you considered SilverLight Aviation rather than individuals. At one point there were 4 engineers sitting in a room executing design ideas, doing FEA simulations, getting results and making changes after design review discussions. This went on for a good 8 months before the prototype was made.
So now that I have answered your very valuable questions (?), you answer mine. How many aircraft have you put in production. What engineering degrees do you hold. How many aircraft companies have you helped with design or modifying design or certify or setup production systems and matured them? Never mind even aircraft, how many machines of decent complexity have you designed and how many machines manufacturing production did you setup to an ISO 2000 standard or similar? Where did you study your Lean Manufacturing basics and AGILE PM? Let me tell you it all sounds easy from the arm chair. Try and actually do it and the song and dance stops. You are the one who started this line of thread and you will get buried in it. Its better you cut it out.