The weight class pretty much dictates why Flynano is like it is. And there is a special reason why this weight class has any demand here (that it might not receive on the other side of the Pond).
The black exterior surface is there just because it is not painted. And it is also made from expensive carbon fiber to make it to fit in the weight limit of 70 kg
(including batteries). That's the limit for a plane that can be flown without medicals, and I think that is the key point in Flynano, it might be hard to see for
someone from country where this kind of class does not exist or the country is more allowing for either medical certification or for higher weight for ultralight plane (like USA has allowance for about twice heavier plane that is still considered ultralight).
The main reason is that anything above 70 kg will require quite strict medicals (and Finland interprets them the most severe way in the whole EU, and Flynano originates from this country). I think the point is that older pilots with any medical conditions can continue flying with sub-70 kg planes like Flynano. In Finland LSA or microlight do require similar requirements than the full airline pilot medicals but with
exception that the visits to AME are less frequent, but requirements are the same. There are no special issuance medicals unlike in FAA in here, and people with
any condition (even if you had a condition that got fixed/cured, shelving can be permanent in many cases, such as you have once a cancer, even if you are ruled cured after 5 years, you will not get medicals ever back most likely) will be failed permanently and this leads to a market for a plane which can be flown without medicals as some people are too addicted to flying to give up. Not sure how large market that
would be, but at least those older pilots typically have bunch of money too to pay for their toy, and because denied flying anything else, they may be desperate and
wealthy enough, so they might pay for a very lightweight airplane (sub 70 kg). It is interesting to follow how many customers this kind of niche will generate.
The question is that is the Flynano exactly what these older pilots wants as an airplane design/concept, but whatever the case, there most likely would be some demand for sub-70 kg planes. And to my knowledge, the limit is 80 kg if you make it a glider (that shows it can glide) that can be towed (even if it would be normally flown as powered plane, what you basically need is to add a hook).
CriCri almost fits into this category, so technically it is possible to make this lightweight plane.
There is also easier regulation for sub 70-kg plane. If you want to make anything heavier than that, you need to have certified design organization and certified production organization and certified quality organization and you may need to employ a lots of people and have an organization that is a thousand years behind Toyota's lean manufacturing ideology. And the applications for the said organizations are generally denied on basis of "too inexperienced people" if the people in the startup are young. For example instrument training in Finland is about non-existent, and a group of young guys with CFI certificates and former pilot training experience etc. on everybody formed a small pilot training company, and they applied for ability for train for instrument rating. They have had difficulties to get them approved on the basis that these guys are "too young" (less than 40 years old!) and haven't been established player on the field for years already. The regulation has never heard of kanban and heijunka and does not consider startups but rather protect the business model of existing players that are already on the field. If you want to make planes with shoestring budget (with employing just few employees and not a large corporation with HR department and all) instead of hundreds of millions, it will be much easier in the EASA world with sub 70 or sub 80 kg planes. Even Cessna gave up with their LSA intentions to bring it on EU market as it would have been expensive and risky from economical standpoint. So this all leads to things like Flynano even if it leads to ridiculously expensive carbon fiber structures and unpainted surfaces (because the paint is heavy) and quite useless concepts as general aviation airplane, but possibly acceptable if they are considered toys rather than planes used to get to somewhere.
In fact, even I have been sometimes toying around an idea of a sort of electric powered motorglider sub-80 kg plane, a bit like Sunseeker.
Potential customers for a Flynano-like concept could be like these:
- People that have moved from other EU country or USA to Finland but are not able to obtain medical certificate in Finland because the regulation is stricter here or they have
some medical condition that does not allow them to get medicals from anywhere.
- People that want to have a cheap to next to their summer cottage. Summer cottages next to lake are very popular in Finland.
- People that like waterjets but are not into full airplanes. With microlight training they will have skill to drive a small plane like Flynano.
Certainly a niche, but a targeted niche. Not general aviation, but very special case aviation.
