Ya Know Meat, you are the antithesis of Sony in this discussion. To be fair, If you are saying that this is a rehash of an old con, you must provide some evidence that anyone was conned. I don't think you can do that.
Yes the idea for this plane has been around for over 8 years and perhaps much longer. BN ceased production in 1984 and from what I have pieced together they may have done so abruptly.
Why else would they have made so many extra "kits"? Why did they cease production? If you look at the company's history, you see they have changed hands several times and were in receivership twice just in the 70's.
So, I think it is fair to believe that the kits have been around since 1984 which would make them 23 years old. Do we know what all a "Kit" consists of? I know for sure it does not include the engine which is probably the most expensive component of the aircraft. The BN never used the intended engine of the Integrity design so why would they have it?
Also, the kits were to make the trilander. The intergrity requires substantial modifications to the Trilander "kit".
Sony says this partner guy owns 12 kits. Van Dyke has told people that he owns 10 kits and never mentioned a partner. So if he does have a partner do they have 22 kits? Van Dyke told Chuck441 and others that he had parts to build 10 planes. Perhaps he has parts of 10 planes but not ALL the parts. Probably not many, but the airframes most likely. Why is SONY giving us information nobody else has?
The old story from '99 does tell us this idea has been around for awhile but there is no indication of any CON so I wouldn't say that without due cause. Will it ever get built? Ever be certified? Is it a "TARBABY or "MANKILLER?, who knows?
What I question is that if this "unique" design for a single tail mounted turboprop is all that they claim, why in all of aviation history has one not been built?
Perhaps as some here have claimed there is some inherent design flaw that makes it not feasible. Only time will tell. But we know they didn't decide to take the company public just to share their wealth if the thing is a great success. They need to raise capital and will do so by selling shares.
AI
