Whisper X350 aircraft

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DMD3.

Pre-takeoff checklist
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DMD3.
It seems that every time you turn around there’s a new kit aircraft manufacturer on the market. Just came across this on Dan Johnso’s website. Another competitor to the RV. Does anyone know anything about this aircraft?


Here’s the artical on Dan’s website

bydanjohnson.com

Fly Light Sport CA - ByDanJohnson.com

Fly Light Sport CA offers the super-speedy Whisper from South Africa. A kit with a LSA model in the works brings this sleek aircraft to American skies. Build time is half of an RV (to which Whisper is often compared), and the delivery time is shorter.
bydanjohnson.com bydanjohnson.com

It says it’s priced “between” an RV 7 & RV 14, but claim about half the build time.
 
No option for BRS that I see. Just don't understand such an omission.
 
The website compares the Whisper x350 against lots of comparable aircraft, including the RV-7 and RV-14. The Whisper takes the lead in the comparison: price, build time, lead time, speed, range, safety, BRS, etc. They've been around for a few years, strange they are not more well known. There must be some drawbacks, otherwise we'd see these aircraft all over the place.
 
SoCalPilot88 said:
The website compares the Whisper x350 against lots of comparable aircraft, including the RV-7 and RV-14. The Whisper takes the lead in the comparison: price, build time, lead time, speed, range, safety, BRS, etc. They've been around for a few years, strange they are not more well known. There must be some drawbacks, otherwise we'd see these aircraft all over the place.
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I wonder if these aircraft had come around decades ago at around the same time Vans began selling kits, if they’d be super popular today. At a time when experimental was far less expensive. Experimental today can still be more affordable than going certified, but the gap has diminished.

Another aircraft that I’ve posted about is the Revolution Tango.
revolutionaviation.net

RAI-1 Tango

2 Seat Aircraft 180 hp, 180 knots, 1,800 nautical mile range. Those are the basic performance numbers for the RAI-1. The basic description is: Fun, feels like a little fighter. A typical reaction is I love it. Approaching the plane, you may wonder about the raked back wind screen and...
revolutionaviation.net revolutionaviation.net

180 kts & 1800 nm range on fixed-gear. I’ve seen them at Airventure.
 
I sat in one years ago at Oshkosh. The cabin was massive, something like 48-50” wide. Performance was great and price wasn’t bad. I couldn’t understand why there weren’t people drooling all over this plane. It was parked over by main entrance of OSH, where Pipestrel and Bristell normally are. So maybe it was overlooked by potential kit builders?
 
Sierra_Hotel said:
Whoa. I like that.
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I sat in a RAI 4 in 2010. Lots of shoulder room but the center console took up a lot of cabin width. Also it didn’t have enough head room. I’m a long waisted 6’3” guy.
 
Oh, acro-category stressed and trike configuartion offered? absolutely interested now as an alternative to the RV. Need to see what kind of all-in costs in present day though. They admit the price list needs update, a YIO 360 for less than 30K, yeah that tells me their out the door figure is vaporware at this point. no big deal, I'd def gonna be that guy who slaps a used engine and basic avionics if I ever build.

I'm gonna keep an eye on them though, this might be promising further down the line, even if I do get an RV to cover my current work commute issue in the interim. Thanks for the find!
 
SoCalPilot88 said:
The website compares the Whisper x350 against lots of comparable aircraft, including the RV-7 and RV-14. The Whisper takes the lead in the comparison: price, build time, lead time, speed, range, safety, BRS, etc. They've been around for a few years, strange they are not more well known. There must be some drawbacks, otherwise we'd see these aircraft all over the place.
Click to expand...
I’m looking for a flight test by Dan or KitPlanes or something. But they look really interesting. Anybody seen anything recent? Kitplanes flew a prototype down in Ozark Missouri but the 2019 article was kinda light on flight characteristics.
 
I called the guy in Missouri and he said he gave up and is not working with them on kits.

They are now rep’d by Deon Lombard of Fly Light Sport CA at 949-283-9941. He seems to be in South Africa now building so have not spoken with him.
 
The key element in building a homebuilt is having support from other builders working on the same aircraft.

You end up having hundreds and hundreds of questions. You can't turn to the manufacturer for every little question.

You can design the best homebuilt in the world but without a builder support network you aren't going to get much traction. This is why Van's, Zenith, and few others will continue to dominate the market.

This, of course, is on top of every homebuilders distrust of a new design. Do you really want to spend thousands of hours of your life and tens of thousands of dollars only to find out that there is some inherent problem that no one was aware of? Perhaps a connection that was not properly designed by the manufacturer that fails after 200 hours, or some other structural deficiency the manufacturer didn't consider.

People who are going to be flying with loved ones are generally not willing to take a chance on a new design, no matter how good it may sound.

Another aspect is resale. Fir most builders a homebuilt aircraft is a significant "investment". They want to know that if they can't fly anymore that they can sell their aircraft and recoup some of their investment. With a new design no one knows what flaws may reveal themselves after a period of time that could result in a significant or total loss of their "investment" (yes, I am using the term loosely).
 
Last edited:
hindsight2020 said:
Oh, acro-category stressed and trike configuartion offered? absolutely interested now as an alternative to the RV. Need to see what kind of all-in costs in present day though. They admit the price list needs update, a YIO 360 for less than 30K, yeah that tells me their out the door figure is vaporware at this point. no big deal, I'd def gonna be that guy who slaps a used engine and basic avionics if I ever build.

I'm gonna keep an eye on them though, this might be promising further down the line, even if I do get an RV to cover my current work commute issue in the interim. Thanks for the find!
Click to expand...
Thoughts on the Yak-18T? Acro trike AND 4-5 seats to boot.
 
Florida Man said:
Thoughts on the Yak-18T? Acro trike AND 4-5 seats to boot.
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I looked at them (18T/52/CJ et al) a few years back and crossed them out for a host of reasons. I won't into them since I don't want to get into a back and forth with the owner tribes/not that important. BL, I can get more performance/cost bang for the buck for my use case on much smaller wet area/cross-sectional area airplanes (RVs, glasairs et al).
 
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