The receiver on my trailer hitch is held by one bolt. It hauls a trailer with three horses and a tac room.

The thing that makes it strong is not the one bolt but the two members the bolt holds together.

I think what is giving people pause here is not the four bolts but what the four bolts are attached to. That's where there's a huge difference between this and the wings on our Bonanza's.

Don't know about headroom, nor legroom, but as long as it doesn't have a center console, a 43" cockpit width is (barely) adequate for me.

Overall, I don't think my skills will ever be adequate for safe operation of this plane.

I don't know who said it first, but "Just because you can afford a plane doesn't mean you should by and fly it!"

I do wish them all the best, and as other posters have said, they have a better chance than the Raptor crew.

So this seems pretty comparable to the old Lancair 360. The 360s ran parallel valve 360s and getting 200 knots was pretty normal. I don't think and extra 20hp pushes it to 235knots and that thing was pretty aerodynamically slippery...

This is going to be one expensive lawn dart if they don't somehow address low speed handling. That wing will be unforgiving and bite you in a second. I am just going by the photo. I would suggest -

* Wing cuff to tame the stall
* Speed brakes
* High gear extension speeds
* Slotted Fowler flaps

And yes I know these will add weight!

It's not going to fare well in turbulence or light icing. It's light weight and high aspect-ratio wing will be a handful.

That being said I hope they pull this off and disrupt the entire industry.

There’s no secret to speed: take a big engine and wrap the smallest, lightest, sleekest airframe around it. Technology can make that big engine lighter or that airframe lighter and sleeker but the basic formula still holds.

TBM Mooney addressed the cruise to stall speed ratio by doing a 90% Fowler flap with a small aileron and spoiler on design- the MU2 wing addressed the same thing minus the aileron.

It has one, the rudder splits a la the space shuttle.I agree. Their use of split flaps is where they lost me. There's a reason nobody puts those on new designs anymore. They clearly don't care about a low approach speed. It seems they're just rehashing the Lancair and we know how that accident rate turned out.

There’s no secret to speed: take a big engine and wrap the smallest, lightest, sleekest airframe around it. Technology can make that big engine lighter or that airframe lighter and sleeker but the basic formula still holds.

Gotta applaud a couple of young guys tackling a project like this, and I hope they're successful.

The dimensions work out to about the same as a Lancair Legacy, though maybe 300 pounds pounds lighter. I suppose that it's possible that 21st century manufacturing helps them make a design that saves so much weight. On the other hand, this is their engine mount. I don't see how the hell this structure is going to be nearly strong enough to hold on to an engine in any but the gentlest flight conditions.

Anyone one taking bets on Raptor vs. Darkaero? :7)

I would hope they have a chance to read this thread and work on issues like the motor mount as overall the design looks very promising.

I give it even money. The Darkaero guys are like the Raptor guy at about that stage.

Following their work the past few months, they are doing a really good job. Their nose gear looks quite a bit sturdier than the Raptor nosegear. Then again, DarkAero has the engine up front with a tricycle gear configuration. It will be interesting to see if they offer a conventional gear option since Nemesis NXT had conventional gear.

They have an active Facebook page. You could certainly ask them questions there. Others have.

https://www.facebook.com/darkaeroinc

My bets are on Dark Aero.