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Not everyone and the regulation is already done. Easy, cut and dry. This is the part about the "flying car" that literally everyone gets wrong. If we are talki

Not everyone and the regulation is already done. Easy, cut and dry. This is the part about the "flying car" that literally everyone gets wrong. If we are talking USA, ask the FAA if everyone can fly. There is the Class 3 flight physical that is required to fly as a PPL pilot... it is very, very thorough. If you can't pass that, there is a massive and growing sport class of flyers who are not full PPL's but still require pretty expensive training to get certified... and you are quite limited in size and scope. In short, there is not going to be a massive "flying car" moment in this country unless they are autonomous or remotely piloted by ultra qualified people.

loup-vaillant 10y ago
Hey, I'm basing this on the hype they are rousing on their website. From the second paragraph of their "mission" page: > We are bringing personalized, clean and affordable air travel to everyone. Either they're trying to con someone, or they intend to drastically lowers the bars to entry: it must be affordable, legal, and mustn't require much skill. I'm also seeing a beautiful rendering of those things flying over a dense city lower than some rooftops, and a landing pad with people standing on them, just after one craft took off. They're gonna need one hell of a lobbying force to pull that off. Or a couple decades proving this stuff is mighty safe.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > Either they're trying to con someone, or they intend to drastically lowers the bars to entry: it must be affordable, legal, and mustn't require much skill. They explicitly say that the "for everyone" part isn't everyone can fly (or afford to own) one, just that you will be able to hail them via a smartphone app and they'll come to you where you need them, because building suitable landing sites will be relatively inexpensive and attractive to property owners.
  - loup-vaillant 10y ago
    Still, there's the problem of volume. "Everyone" has to mean "more than 1% of the traffic" to be at all meaningful. Air traffic controllers are gonna have to become bloody efficient to absorb that.
FabHK 10y ago
In Germany, there is talk of a new category/class of aircraft for certification of the Volocopter and similar designs, and possibly a new airmen license, as well, as operations are just so different. (I mean, landing consists of choosing a spot and then pulling the thumb switch downwards until touchdown...) FAA and EASA are increasingly looking at performance based, rather than narrow implementation based certification. I agree that the regulatory hurdles are monumental, but they're not insurmountable.

loup-vaillant 10y ago

Hey, I'm basing this on the hype they are rousing on their website. From the second paragraph of their "mission" page: > We are bringing personalized, clean and affordable air travel to everyone. Either they're trying to con someone, or they intend to drastically lowers the bars to entry: it must be affordable, legal, and mustn't require much skill. I'm also seeing a beautiful rendering of those things flying over a dense city lower than some rooftops, and a landing pad with people standing on them, just after one craft took off. They're gonna need one hell of a lobbying force to pull that off. Or a couple decades proving this stuff is mighty safe.

dragonwriter 10y ago
> Either they're trying to con someone, or they intend to drastically lowers the bars to entry: it must be affordable, legal, and mustn't require much skill. They explicitly say that the "for everyone" part isn't everyone can fly (or afford to own) one, just that you will be able to hail them via a smartphone app and they'll come to you where you need them, because building suitable landing sites will be relatively inexpensive and attractive to property owners.
- loup-vaillant 10y ago
  Still, there's the problem of volume. "Everyone" has to mean "more than 1% of the traffic" to be at all meaningful. Air traffic controllers are gonna have to become bloody efficient to absorb that.

FabHK 10y ago

In Germany, there is talk of a new category/class of aircraft for certification of the Volocopter and similar designs, and possibly a new airmen license, as well, as operations are just so different. (I mean, landing consists of choosing a spot and then pulling the thumb switch downwards until touchdown...) FAA and EASA are increasingly looking at performance based, rather than narrow implementation based certification. I agree that the regulatory hurdles are monumental, but they're not insurmountable.