Innodyne, LLC, the makers of small turbine engines, announced that the first private-party aircraft with one of their turbines lifted off for test flying in Colorado. The aircraft? None other than a Van’s RV-8 (renamed the RV-8T). The aircraft flew for about 15 minutes to around 9,000 feet.

The price is right also – the least powerful model, at 165 HP is only $26,500. The 255HP model is $34,500. Considering the TBO of 5,000 hours, the wide availability of jet fuel, and the overall reliability of turbines, this could be a great deal. I don’t have any numbers yet to compare the cost of ownership (it might be higher than a piston based on fuel consumption), but you have to admit, this really makes a turbine powered aircraft much more feasable for the light aircraft market.

This is not the first aircraft to have an Innodyne turbine installed – just the first privately owned aircraft. They have previously installed turbines on an RV-4 and a PA-18 Super Cub replica.

Pictures of the RV-8 can be found on the Innodyne website.

[Source: Innodyne, LLC]

A group of students from Tokyo Institute of Technology managed to build an airplane that is powered by 160 AA batteries.  They are claiming it is the first manned plane powered by conventional dry-cell batteries.  The project was co-sponsored by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., who of course makes the batteries.  I will have to check into these new batteries – we go through quite a few in my household since just about every toy my son has needs one.