Turbine Toucan: One HOT Airplane

The Turbine Toucan looks to be the ultimate propeller driven toy-in-the-sky.

Target air show weight will be under 2000lbs with thrust targeted at 3300lbs. This will be close to a 1.65:1 ratio, unheard of in any GA aircraft. To put it in perspective, the F/A-18 Hornet (at fighter mission weight) is 36,700lbs@32,000lbs of thrust. This is about .87:1 thrust to weight ratio performance at a cost of $39.5 million dollars.

I may never get my ride in an F-18 but this ought to do nicely. Fathers’ Day is coming up soon. Feel free to bring this around to the local airport.