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REFLECTOR: Fw: A DELTAHAWK update
Bill,
So sorry for the absence of news. We know that our
"watchers" are about as anxious for our progress as we are.
We
are in fact making very good progress on the development of the production
engine ... finalizing the design improvements and drawings, getting the
production vendor quotes, letting the bids. All stuff that is long lead-time and
has to be done NOW to get engines out the door any time this year let alone as
early as we'd like them.
That is not the stuff of flashy website
updates, unfortunately, and it has temporarily slowed our work on running the
prototype engines. We're about to get back to that, and will post power curves
and any other results when they're newsworthy.
We've made a couple of
tough decisions. The easier of the two is that we're not coming to Sun 'n Fun.
There's just too much to do up here, and we're not going to be able to fly there
(with a DeltaHawk engine, in any case). The harder decision, which is almost but
not quite final, is that we will probably not fly the prototype engines. Perhaps
a flight within range of the runway, but probably not more than that. They have
sufficient power, but they've been compromised with our R&D
modifications...metal cut away and replaced with composites to try different
porting, etc. We don't want to jeopardize the project by taking unnecessary
risks. This adds to the importance of obtaining the production parts, as you can
see, which is why we swung our priority to that. Once we have them, the final
ground tests and flight tests will begin.
This almost certainly means
that we either won't be flying by Oshkosh either, or will only have just begun.
By that time we'll be three and a half years into this project that more
experienced folks said was a 5 to 7 year project for a much larger company. So
... are we behind or ahead?! I know how we all feel about it from watching and
waiting, but realistically ... we're probably about where we should have
expected to be.
Regards,
Diane Doers
DeltaHawk, Inc.
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--Original Message
Text---
From: Bill Eck
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1999 16:53:02
-0600
How goes it @ DELTA HAWK??? I have
expected a "It Flys" now for weeks. What about S/F this year. Flying
in to make a grand entrance??? You might just update your web page. I check it
daily. Warm regards, Bill Eck