having ridden in, it is really an amazing aircraft with Aerostar handling and jet performance. a great aircraft.

The engines look like FOD magnets

They covered this in Part 2 of the interview. Less FOD than many fuselage mounted designs. Higher clearance (as % of form) than 737. No issues in testing.

I flew in Bobby Allison's turbine Aerostar. It was a wild ride. This has to be off the charts. I'd love to see someone take it through certification. Pocket rocket.

How so?


I don't think FOD works that way. All that matters is eth bottom of the inlet height and the intake velocity. In that regard, it will be worse than a 737.

Also 737s operate almost exclusively on well maintained big runways which are carefully swept for FOD. A GA airplane operates from numerous less well maintained runways.

This won't be a great traveling airplane due to limited fuel and limited cabin diff. Turbine conversions of piston aircraft almost always are seriously flawed.

Mike C.

I'd also be curious about water being deflected off the nose wheel into the engine.

It seems like a cool airplane, but why would you buy it over a mature design?

You might be surprised how many FOD events airlines actually have. It's been a while since I heard the numbers, but the regional I (and several other BT'rs worked for) had FOD events on ~70 engines over a five year period. They changed procedures on use of thrust reverse and the problem just about went away.
I do remember them saying they had data showing they picked up a steel 0.25"X2" pin off of the runway at ORD during a takeoff which resulted in an engine failure about 30 minutes later.

Ted Smith designed and engineered the Aerostar to be a family of piston, turboprop and pure jet based on this airframe.
The 600 was just the base model first to be produced.
601 and 601P were as far as they got.

Had he done the jet, it would have had a lot of changes that are impractical to implement as a retrofit.

For example, an 8 PSI cabin.

Mike C.

Ted Smith designed and engineered the Aerostar to be a family of piston, turboprop and pure jet based on this airframe.
The 600 was just the base model first to be produced.
601 and 601P were as far as they got.

They should put those cougar baron TPE-331s on there, that would be the ultimate Aerostar.

Due to Vmc limitations, the power would have to be derated so far that it wouldn't be of much use to hang a 1000 HP engine on each side.

You can't just power upgrade a prop twin without other considerations.

There isn't enough fuel to make that work well, either.

Mike C.

That jet conversion has been around a while.

It may not make any sense, but I think it looks cool. Like a personal mini-737.