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Counter intuitively is very hard to design a small VTOL that works on fossile fuel, it's much simpler to do it electric. Moller is the best example after forty
by elmar 10y ago
Counter intuitively is very hard to design a small VTOL that works on fossile fuel, it's much simpler to do it electric.
Moller is the best example after forty years and $100M and several marriages it still doesn't work.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_M400_Skycarhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_M400_Skycar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_M400_Skycarhttps://en...
VoloCopter is a good example of what is possible today with electric powering, the big bottleneck is autonomy with current battery technology with only the pilot you get around 15-20 flight time.
- dredmorbius 10y agoIsn't this because electric drive has high power output, but that this comes at a severe cost in range? Moller is probably most effective at having developed very high power-weight rotary engine technology. Fuel consumption is high, and the things are noisy as hell. I've watched development for over 25 years, and he's no closer to commercialisation than he was in 1989, for much the same reasons. It's nostalgic to see the occasional press mention though.
- elmar 10y agoyou normally need several motors or to distribute the power of the motors in several rotors that is very dificult for small vehicles this guy did it with using several two stroke engines http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/garden/in-a-remote-part-of-utah-life-alone-in-a-hangar.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/garden/in-a-remote-part...