Of course it would be nice if Diamond themselves picked-up the idea of BDA and we did not have to do all that.
I am going to AERO Friedrichshafen in 3 weeks time and I will stop by and ask them if they would do an STC for us or somehow support us if we do the STC.
(are you coming btw? Lance and I plan on meeting there on saturday, it would be nice to meet you in person
).I would be surprised if Diamond Austria said yes... But you are right, we should ask...
If we have to design our own landing gear, I expect it to be a lighter, more aerodynamic setup simply by removing the "trainer" focus which they put on their specs.
We save weight by using machined aluminum or composite instead of solid steel.
We can then invest this weight "credit" on the front of the plane to properly manage the CG situation. How about making the cowling out of polished stainless steel?
I had a lengthy discussion with Lance yesterday. Despite the fact that we did not secure (yet) the financial support we were hoping for, we are pushing ahead and hoping that the community will show more motivation once we have a clearer picture of the roadmap.
The project is maturing and focusing upon the goal of making the DA40 a 1000 lb useful load plane, capable of an honest 150 Knot cruise on 9 GPH at FL150. This is a very ambitious goal considering no power upgrade, but we believe we can do it.
Please continue debating: this is what makes the vision and our options mature, and we certainly are in need for as much "brainware" as we can find. As I said in my first post: nobody knows better than our community what our planes need.
