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Elroy Air’s autonomous hybrid aircraft can pick up cargo containers on its own

22 points by prostoalex 7y ago

bahador 7y ago
Not intermodal containers.
- Animats 7y ago
  Right. Only their special 300lb pods. It takes off vertically on electric props and transitions to horizontal winged flight driven by a fuel-powered prop. That's how they get reasonable range. Several other big drones use that approach, and it seems to work. We may see full-sized aircraft which work like that. NASA has been fooling around with electric VTOL takeoff and transition to winged horizontal flight. Most aircraft which do that transition are mechanical nightmares, like the Osprey. It's starting to look like having a separate VTOL electrical propulsion system can compete with mechanical transition VTOL. It's certainly simpler.
  - redis_mlc 7y ago
    If I was offered a free ride on an Osprey, I'd laugh, then run away as fast as I could.
    - toomuchtodo 7y ago
      Your free ride would still chase you to the crash site.
    - burfog 7y ago
      In the most reasonable civilian use, you couldn't run away. It wouldn't be free either, but it might be covered by health insurance. The V-22 Osprey is ideal for getting you to a trauma center. It could pick you up from the highway, just like a helicopter, but then it has the speed and range to get you where you need to be before it is too late.
Skunkleton 7y ago
I was expecting the attached video to actually demonstrate VTOL with self-attached cargo. It does not. It doesn't really demonstrate anything other than (unstable looking) low altitude cargoless flight, and a cargo self-loading mechanism. In the previous TC article, it states that the drone is actually manually piloted as well. How far along is this project really?
siod 7y ago
It seems pretty disingenuous to show two totally different models in the same video like this, the model that gets airborne doesn't have a back prop/shaft nor is it carrying a cargo container. No one expects a prototype to carry the full load, but it looks like it can't even get itself airborne at this stage...

22 points by prostoalex 7y ago

bahador 7y ago

Not intermodal containers.

Animats 7y ago
Right. Only their special 300lb pods. It takes off vertically on electric props and transitions to horizontal winged flight driven by a fuel-powered prop. That's how they get reasonable range. Several other big drones use that approach, and it seems to work. We may see full-sized aircraft which work like that. NASA has been fooling around with electric VTOL takeoff and transition to winged horizontal flight. Most aircraft which do that transition are mechanical nightmares, like the Osprey. It's starting to look like having a separate VTOL electrical propulsion system can compete with mechanical transition VTOL. It's certainly simpler.
- redis_mlc 7y ago
  If I was offered a free ride on an Osprey, I'd laugh, then run away as fast as I could.
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    Your free ride would still chase you to the crash site.
  - burfog 7y ago
    In the most reasonable civilian use, you couldn't run away. It wouldn't be free either, but it might be covered by health insurance. The V-22 Osprey is ideal for getting you to a trauma center. It could pick you up from the highway, just like a helicopter, but then it has the speed and range to get you where you need to be before it is too late.

Skunkleton 7y ago

I was expecting the attached video to actually demonstrate VTOL with self-attached cargo. It does not. It doesn't really demonstrate anything other than (unstable looking) low altitude cargoless flight, and a cargo self-loading mechanism. In the previous TC article, it states that the drone is actually manually piloted as well. How far along is this project really?

siod 7y ago

It seems pretty disingenuous to show two totally different models in the same video like this, the model that gets airborne doesn't have a back prop/shaft nor is it carrying a cargo container. No one expects a prototype to carry the full load, but it looks like it can't even get itself airborne at this stage...