Raptor is bigger and it has one more seat. It has a more spacious cabin (it's one of his selling points) and it has a bigger airframe to carry that cabin around. Bigger and more comfortable... Conceptually, trying to do new engine at the same time as new airplane is more risk and a lot more work.

Clearly, the project is a heck of a lot of work for one person, overwhelming even.

Successfully developing a viable, fast cruiser that burns Jet A but doesn't have new turbine costs or insurance, that would be a real coup in the small airplane market.

Would it have been a more savvy strategy to focus on that Audi engine and then apply that to selling FWF kits for Velocitys (and Cozys, for example)?

Peter can’t get the AC to work reliably.

Is the Audi TD a compound turbo or twin turbo, one for each bank?

Compound on the raptor. No idea what’s stock Audi.

Help us out and give us a summary:

http://raptor-aircraft.com/engine.html

Help us out and give us a summary:

http://raptor-aircraft.com/engine.html

Help us out and give us a summary:

http://raptor-aircraft.com/engine.html

Has he stated why he didn’t put the engine in something else before trying to tackle both a new airframe and a new engine simultaneously? Either one of those projects by themselves seems more than one person could handle. I’m super impressed he’s gotten as far as he has, but it seems an impossible dream. I hope he comes out of this lighter in the pocketbook but in good health.

I’m reminded of the starship where everything looked great on paper but when they built it it didn’t meet the numbers predicted and ultimately failed.

Anyone know if he reads the forum?

I think he has stated that people weren’t interested until he brought the TDI into the project. The problem has been he doesn’t have the time nor funds to do this project correctly. Once he got the small model to fly he went straight into the prototype. Once he got the re-drive from grenading, it went straight on the aircraft.

I’m not sure how much money out of pocket he will be, but he has gotten $2.5 million from investors by offering people part ownership and guaranteed pricing by putting more money into it. When it flies and meets some undefined milestone, he will ask for the escrows released. That could be another $2 million.

Raptor is bigger and it has one more seat.

The fate of the Starship hung more in the requirements that the FAA put on it for certification. Because it was a new design with new materials their requirements turned out to be excessive in many cases, and the resultant weight and drag hurt its performance. Unable to economically compete with the King Air, it was not going to live, but that wasn't Beechcraft's fault.

As to looking good on paper but being heavier/slower/shorter range (pick one or more) in the final product, that describes almost every new design I've ever seen. Peter has simply taken it to a new level.

The Raptor is now a 6 seat???

The Dash-5 XL has been around for about 15 years. Just about every XL built in that time has been the 5 seat version.

Uh no! The problem is he doesn’t have the skill set, experience, or personality to tackle a project anywhere near this nature. Quite frankly, I don’t think Peter even has what it takes to assemble a proven kit design, let alone build an aircraft from scratch. No amount of time and money will fix his stubborn refusals to listen to experts, or his insistence and building by trial and error rather than design/engineer first, build second.

Uh no! The problem is he doesn’t have the skill set, experience, or personality to tackle a project anywhere near this nature. Quite frankly, I don’t think Peter even has what it takes to assemble a proven kit design, let alone build an aircraft from scratch. No amount of time and money will fix his stubborn refusals to listen to experts, or his insistence and building by trial and error rather than design/engineer first, build second.