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Switchblade: $170k Flying Car Has Taken Its First Flight
- HNArg024 3y agoIs it me, or isn't this what we call just a "plane"? A very light-weight (maybe even cheap) plane. There's another company trying to do these "flying cars" which approach seemed better. The one with several small fans, capable of vertical take-off. Can't recall their name. But unless I'm missing something... that's way closer to a "flying car" than this one.
- leobg 3y agoLilium?
- malux85 3y agoYeah I kind of think that visions of the future from 50 years ago envisioned flying cars being the result of a new kind of propulsion - not something akin to a small plane that has wings and requires a runway
- ericpauley 3y agoYup, pretty clearly just a plane that is designed to kind of look like a car. The fact that they're planning to sell as an EAB (experimental amateur built) is also basically a showstopper for any general adoption.
- two_handfuls 3y agoIt’s a plane that is also road-legal. It may not match the scifi images evoked by the word “flying car” but it is a practical approach. This has been tried before and the previous attempts were not successful.
- erickj 3y agoCan you imagine how many horrific crashes there would be if everyday drivers were allowed to fly their cars. Road rage taken to the sky
- Obscurity4340 3y agoIts always astounded me when there's so many problems with what I would describe as driving in 2 dimensions and now the maker of that wants to step it up to real 3D...
- bicijay 3y agoI mean, to be honest, horse riders probably said the same thing about motor vehicles
- noman-land 3y agoAnd they were right.
- subtra3t 3y agoBut it still changed the world, in a very significant (and positive imo) way
- giraffe_lady 3y agoNot for a million people per year and their families.
- relativ575 3y agoBut for hundreds of million people? Have you ever considered why car ownership increases as countries are getting richer? like in China or India. Car isn't only status symbol, it allows people to move more easily. Public transport is nice but not enough. Car plays an important role, regardless of how negative it's being perceived on HN.
- pie420 3y agodoubtful. Imagine if instead of everyone owning a car, we had bullet trains everywhere, and amazing public transport. Almost no traffic, much quicker intra- and inner-city commuting. Ugh. Cars, from an engineering and city planning perspective are super innefficient. Imagine all the housing, stores, and other economically beneficial things we could build instead of the hellscape of parking lots we have today.
- bitcurious 3y agoReally bad name. “Switchblade” is both evoking of violence on its own, and the name of a suicide drone. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVironment_Switchblade https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVironment_Switchblade
- fooker 3y agoI don't imagine the category of people who want to buy this being affected by this, it could be a plus point though.
- SilverBirch 3y agoYeah this was my first reaction "Oh, so like that thing that blew things up in Ukraine"
- boffinAudio 3y agoAn interesting concept but I still feel like the Opener Aero Fly is the closest we're going to get to a feasible flight/drive transportation system: https://evtol.news/opener-blackfly-v3 https://evtol.news/opener-blackfly-v3 The failure modes are reduced in this design, which is why I feel its more feasible as a mass-production design.
- chriselles 3y agoI don’t understand the numerous efforts, or appeal, over decades to develop a single product combining driving with flying. Compromises due to conflicting design and regulatory requirements seem destined to result in The Homer: https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/The_Homer https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/The_Homer
- dzonga 3y agoif the wings are not retractible on the road - then it's a plane.
- S_Bear 3y agoCan't wait to see someone drunk fly these into power lines or a silo.