That belt drive deal spooks me.

That he had to weld a flange on the roller to keep the belt from coming off or for some other reason?

That he had to weld a flange on the roller to keep the belt from coming off or for some other reason?

I could not tell if he went to full throttle on the last test but it took him nearly 1000 feet and 23 seconds to hit 52 KTS if he did. That reminds me of the 182 on a warm day when fully loaded in Savannah. Yes, on his taxi test down the runway, he was the sole occupant.

At least he is working to fine tune the engine but my fear is that the minutia won't get him the 300hp he likely needs and the 350hp that plane could really use.

I'd say pretty much the same thing for any fatal first flight in an experimental aircraft. While I'm still convinced that the Raptor has too many design flaws to ever be successful, at least not without a substantial engineering effort, I doubt that the first flight will be significantly more risky than others made in scratch built one-off designs conceived and built by someone with lesser skills than Burt Rutan.

Is there a possibility, for liability reasons, that Audi will put the poo poo on using their engine once this project gets off the ground?

I don’t see how they could. It’s a junkyard engine.

Some macro thoughts from various perspectives on the nature of human progress in general, and observations on observations made by the copious misanthropists posing as zetetics. The latter melancholy actuality (as demonstrated below), both, obscured by previous grand distinction, and proven to be precisely so not a priori, but ipso facto.

Everyone finds their level in life. It becomes obvious very quickly who is comparing themselves to others, and who is comparing themselves to the best of which they are capable. History showing the former always hate the latter. And some men, even having learned that lesson, forget it and regress. The battle is both, real and never ending.

Expert congressional testimony on integrating and supporting the "tomfoolery" of private initiatives (i.e SpaceX) - Neil Armstrong - Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering, numerous honorary PhD's. First man to walk on the moon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp5DfNhhGX4&t=4m10s

For the record Neil was dead wrong as demonstrated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0-pfzKbh2k

An expert practitioner on experts. (Self-made) billionaire Vinod Khosla on "expert opinion not being better than dart throwing monkeys and why innovation ALWAYS comes from the edges, never the core (of industry or society.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Dai5VyNaA&t=0m48s

Haters gonna hate (from the cheap seats). Doers gonna do

Airspeed is alive
Gauges in the green
V1.. rotate
Positive rate indicated
Gear up
Yaw damper engaged
Welcome to Shangri La
Your ticket stamped and paid for by the doers

Fly Raptor fly

Innovations or break-through concepts can come from anywhere, but at the end of the day, the laws of physics are still in force and no amount of hype or hope will change them.

I applaud the enthusiasm and transparency of this effort, but fear someone might die before reality sets in.

I agree with the sentiment above, but this thing is a turd.

Sometimes, geniuses are called fools by entrenched experts. Sometimes, fools are identified correctly. Criticism isn't proof of genius. Neither is it evidence of weakness in the one criticizing.

As a Marine and a doer, that there was a lot of big $.25 words I probably don’t understand. But I also hope the bird flys.

“why innovation ALWAYS comes from the edges, never the core (of industry or society.)“

The problem that you and many other supporters fail to see is that there is no real innovation involved in the Raptor. We already know how these wings make lift. We know how Audi Diesel engines work. We know enough about power to weight ratios and about drag coefficients and the other factors that will define performance. To hit the promised cruise speeds at promised fuel burn he needed an incredible reduction in drag compared to a existing 4-5 seat planes and/or a major improvement in BSFC over existing engine designs. The airframe is clearly not going to deliver big drag reduction over a Velocity and the engine came from an old Audi design that we already know can’t produce the power and efficiency necessary.

For the Raptor to perform as promised, it needed some major innovation. That hasn’t happened and instead we have seen it gain a tremendous amount of weight while simultaneously coming up short on power output. Pointing that out, or the many other engineering concerns, doesn’t make someone anti-innovation or a naysayer. It is called learning from experience and the experience of others.