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That thing's empty. It's a giant carbon-fiber drone. Cool and all, but that is not a test flight. Initially I thought it was using those spinning-cylinder wing
by Applejinx 10y ago
That thing's empty. It's a giant carbon-fiber drone. Cool and all, but that is not a test flight.
Initially I thought it was using those spinning-cylinder wings to produce the VTOL behavior! Decent approach, though.
No sound. I'd like to hear how noisy it is: the wind alone will be pretty loud, even if the electric motors are silent. And again, there's nobody in that: with a passenger it's going to work maybe three times as hard, depending on how light and dronelike it is empty. They might have next to no batteries in there, it behaves like it's quite staggeringly light.
Clever to use dronelike autostabilization to avoid having much in the way of control surfaces. This vehicle absolutely depends on having those fans working, and probably couldn't glide to a landing of any sort.
- jacquesm 10y agoDucted fans run high RPM and screech like banshees. Just another little detail to work out. I just noticed Zennstrom (of Skype fame) is one of their investors.
- elmar 10y agoon the video the transition from lift to forward movement is absent, because it's normally the hardest thing to get right on a VTOL aircraft and i doubt that is solved.
- Applejinx 10y agoI guess I'll just have to do it myself. Fair warning, the result is liable to be goofy and insufficiently Jetson-like, but all the same it's bound to arrive eventually. I'm sure the autostability stuff will be part of the eventual result, because CPU chips are way lighter than aerodynamic control surfaces. I'm sure the Jetsons-hype guys will continue making the direct play for venture capital money. Let 'em.
- byw 10y agoThey could probably fit a parachute to compensate for the lack of gliding ability for emergency landings.
- tlrobinson 10y agoHow high would it need to fly for the parachute to be effective?
- nradov 10y agoEven with a rocket deployed parachute you need to be at least about 200ft above the ground for it to work. So there's a dead zone during takeoff and landing where you're too high to survive a crash but too low to parachute down. Military VTOL jets like the Harrier and F-35B address that risk using zero/zero ejection seats which can launch the pilot straight up high enough for a parachute to work but that's obviously not feasible for general aviation.
- srvlsct 10y agoSince ejection wouldn't be feasible, wonder if an undercarriage airbag, perhaps like bumper rails to keep weight down and work around landing gear, would be effective in a crash?
- nradov 10y agoIf the aircraft is falling out of control there's no guarantee it will impact the ground with the undercarriage side down. Plus airbags would have to be huge and heavy to do any good.
- cmurf 10y agoIf the wings are intact it will have gliding ability. In flight breakups are really rare, and the only other reason why I'd consider a parachute is total electrical failure while in meteorological conditions: i.e. can't see with my eyes or instruments. Night time in the middle of nowhere could also be such a case. If you can't see the ground you're probably gonna hit it faster than you want.
- Applejinx 10y agoNo it won't. Not with a wing there and canards of that size. Without power, that is a lawn dart. The only possible behavior of the rear wing is to point the nose straight at the ground in a ballistic trajectory for maximum speed of impact. That's a wide tail fin, not a wing.
- elmar 10y agoand they are talking about making a five seat model, Stop the madness.
- elmar 10y agoI see Uber buying this company for $1B in a couple of months.
- the_jaded_one 10y ago> And again, there's nobody in that: with a passenger it's going to work maybe three times as hard, depending on how light and dronelike it is empty. How much do you think it masses empty? 30kg? The Gossamer Albatross was 32kg! It's got to be at least 100kg empty.