Build Your Own Jet? Fly Your Own Jet for less than a 172?

There is a great article over at Air and Space Magazine about a designer who has a jet that is efficient and economical at 15,000 feet and can be purchased for $150,000. MUCH less than a new 172. See THIS

"Conventional wisdom holds that jet engines burn too much fuel at low altitudes to be suitable for light aircraft. Jets, it’s said, are efficient only above 30,000 feet or so, where light airplanes fear to tread. “That’s bullshit,” says Merrill flatly. Sure, every jet flying today gulps prodigious amounts of fuel when going low and slow. But that’s because they were all designed to run high and fast. The secret, Merrill says, is to simply optimize the configuration of an engine’s turbines, compressors, and fan for, say, 250 mph at 15,000 feet instead of 500 mph at 40,000 feet. “It’s not rocket science,” he says. “My engine technology and materials are basically 1960s. The breakthrough is conceptual.”

Worth Reading! Now, if they would just make it as a kit!!