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Comment by al2o3cr | Hacker News Reader

    If he was building an experimental amateur-built (E-AB) category airplane,
    then there was likely no regulatory issue.

I have no idea how much these particular engines cost, but even at $100 a pop buying hundreds of them at once puts the applicability of "amateur" under some strain (or that of "experimental", TBH).

OTOH, something about this story doesn't entirely make sense: who would get to the point they were ready to drop six figures on buying engines without, y'know, checking the regulations?

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The story is that they would be sold as kits. I agree with you that this makes the story strange, though.

While his plan involved extensive modification to the engine and resale, the easiest workaround is to have the customer order the engine and freight it to him for modification. It would be expensive, but I do not see how it would have been impossible. This kind of aircraft would have been expensive in any case.

It sounds like other issues may have been just as big of a factor here as Ford's lack of interest.

"who would get to the point they were ready to drop six figures on buying engines..."

Right, what kind of guy is this? The kind who built a full size, accurate working Stonehenge just for fun.

Working Stonehenge? Is it possible to have an accurate but not working Stonehenge?

Those won’t open portals to the ancient alien homeworld, they just sit on the ground on Earth and look cool.

For people on mobile, the quoted section is:

> If he was building an experimental amateur-built (E-AB) category airplane, then there was likely no regulatory issue.

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