I really would love to do this to my DG-800S with a fixed mounted 400N Swiwin or PBS ​Turbine. Fixed mounted for simplicity and less cost accepting the few points in loss performance. If I could do it for $20K, that would be cool. When you push the price to $40-$50K, then it's just better to buy a sailplane with a motor. Remaking the AW certificate seems daunting. Maybe if I found a DG800C with a bad motor I could do a engine swap from two stroke to turbine without a major modification affecting the AW. 17gallons per hour is still a lot of gas compared with the solo 2-stroke motors. I wish electric duct fan's were more efficient. The best 120mm commercial RC product only produces around 10kg of thrust on 150 amps. I can't wait for future tech to catch up to our propulsion needs considering the future loss of tow planes. Two stroke motors seem so problematic/finicky and antique considering all our modern inventions. The sound considerations comparing a turbine to a two stroke motor are not even close in the cool factor. Bring on the warp drive please that runs off my cell phone battery.
Walter Mitty
N800XX