6 ms·
Airbus electric air taxi makes its debut
- roomey 3y agoOh could some one upload the assets these to a video streaming site please?
- HumblyTossed 3y agoThat is a lot of spinning things. I wonder what that thing sounds like IRL.
- rob74 3y agoProbably not as bad as a helicopter? What is probably worse than with a helicopter however is the danger of accidents. The angle of the photo in the press release is weird, but here (https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/low-carbon-aviation/urban-air-mobility/cityairbus-nextgen https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/low-carbon-aviation/urb...) the rotors seem to be at about the height of an adult's head.
- ballooney 3y agoFor a given amount of lift, all things being equal, a single larger diameter propellor will be quieter than several smaller ones at higher speeds, as most of the noise is from turbulence and a function of the difference in velocity between the air accelerated through the rotors and the ‘static’ air surrounding it.
- jack_riminton 3y agoHow much of the noise of a helicopter is from the sonic booms of the rotor tips? I read somewhere it’s a substantial portion but I may be misremembering.
- 0x0203 3y agoVery little, and rarely, if I understand correctly. The characteristic thwop-thwop noise of many helicopters is from the blade passing through the vortex created by the previous blade. In some circumstances, this might lead to local and intermittent supersonic flow, but it's not typical. I think it also only happens when the vehicle is moving in a particular way, but I don't know how vortices propagate from a rotor blade, so I couldn't say how or when the supersonic flow is most likely to occur.
- xnx 3y agoIn practice, the perceived noise is much (much) lower, basically inaudible: https://youtu.be/IX7rdJm5v6s?si=-eGOJKYidDWTRmHw&t=91 https://youtu.be/IX7rdJm5v6s?si=-eGOJKYidDWTRmHw&t=91
- ballooney 3y agoI should have said explicitly, rather the subsuming it in all else being equal, that it’s _very_ different between ‘multicopter’ mode and flying under a wing. The later is, of course, much mor efficient, and the propulsion is correspondingly much quieter.
- hef19898 3y agoAnd airliner engines, the old 737 for example, are even lower. That's why only ground crew approaches the aircraft, and that only after the engines stopped.
- rob74 3y agoYup, however airliners operate at airports, while this contraption is designed for "urban air mobility", whatever that means. I mean, it has to be something with looser restrictions than heliports, otherwise the niche for this vehicle would be pretty small...
- hef19898 3y agoEASA released regulation, and despite whatever companies want you make believe, Airbus being none of those, these aircraft are not allowed to land on a supermarket parking to fly you home. The operate from yet to be defined and built Vertiports (also airports and heliports and pads), for which the basic regulation is there. Think helipads and not speeders on Coruscant.
- axus 3y agoDon't passengers have to approach the aircraft to board? From the picture, the only safe angle I see to board is from the front.
- hef19898 3y agoSure, but then the engines are off. And some cones and such are placed to prevent people from stumbling into the blades.
- xnx 3y agoElectric engines can be stopped and started quickly and reliably, so they don't need to run while passengers are entered or exiting. This makes the vehicle much quieter and saves battery.
- dclowd9901 3y agoNo! That's a terrible place to put a rotor!
- anon-sre-srm 3y agoYeap, dangerous AF because of a failure to design from first principles.
- hef19898 3y agoSee, Airbus does not have to design from first principle, they can do that from n-th principle. You know, like the difference between clueless amateurs and pros.
- uoaei 3y agoAs you may have seen, Zipline's new rotors are much quieter due to some ingenious design. I'm not convinced that propellers need to be as loud as they are.
- xnx 3y agoMuch quieter than small planes and helicopters. Listen for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX7rdJm5v6s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX7rdJm5v6s
- ElijahLynn 3y agoSound is my biggest concern too, seconded by visual pollution of the sky. The first concern has some hope, as there are some new innovations in drone noise reduction. One company is Zipline, here is Mark Rober explaining how they are quieter, with a demo. * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOWDNBu9DkU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOWDNBu9DkU (Amazing Invention- This Drone Will Change Everything - Mark Rober) * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z58RORCUTao https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z58RORCUTao (How Do Zipline's Silent Propellers Work?) Another company is Wing https://wing.com/ https://wing.com/ (owned by Alphabet) > https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zF1VXd4Fr40 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zF1VXd4Fr40
- ElijahLynn 3y agoInteresting, shrouds can reduce sound too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss2t836KD0U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss2t836KD0U
- peer2pay 3y agoWhen is a helicopter an "air taxi" now? Don’t get me wrong, electric helicopter/glider hybrids are cool tech but this just seems like an existing product repackaged to sound futuristic.
- Miserlou57 3y agoMost of them have a rigid wing and can fly and land in full transition flight. I’m sure they’re trying to distance themselves from helicopters as much as possible since they’re loud, expensive etc too
- dougmwne 3y agoBecause it’s not a helicopter! It’s a fixed wing aircraft, making it very much not a helicopter. It would also be reasonable to rename an aircraft class if it was significantly different from other aircraft. For example, an electric, vertical takeoff fixed wing aircraft that doesn’t require a pilot could be reasonably different from airplanes and helicopters to warrant a new name.
- alphabettsy 3y agoIt looks like a helicopter. It appears to generate lift using what they call rotors. Seems like a multi-rotor helicopter.
- govg 3y agoIs it clear if it uses the rotors in flight for lift or for forward movement? I think it would be wrong to call it a helicopter if the only time the rotors provided active lift was during take off / landing. There are fighter aircraft which fire thrusters downwards to achieve VTOL, but calling them rockets would be funny.
- 0xfae 3y agoIt appears to me that they did something clever and the wings and tail section look like they are shaped to generate lift if the vehicle is moving forward fast enough. There are two rotors at the back that blow backward rather than downward. So possible a vertical take off multi-rotor that can then transition to more efficient (and quieter) plane like operation once up to speed.
- stoneman24 3y agoThey call it an air taxi, others might called a multi rotor helicopter but from the picture it looks like a Babylon 5 Starfury to me.
- proee 3y agoThis looks similar to aircraft from Joby Aviation. I wonder if this will crush their market opportunity now that a much bigger company is playing in the space? How can Joby compete against Airbus?
- hef19898 3y agoIf there is a market, I am not convinced yet, I think they can. Because one OEM is not enough, there is place for at least a second one. Boeing has nothing, nor does any other major aerospace OEM. Which leaves a slot for Joby, potentially. Maybe someone else, Autoflight maybe. They are Chinese, meaning endless money for the time being, have a decent team and progress steadily and very quietly. Personally, I'll count out all the other contenders.
- sumantsharma 3y agoBoeing owns a significant portion of Wisk and also has some stake in Archer.
- hef19898 3y agoDidn't they devest Wisk? I could be mixing things up, didn't check. Wisk and Archer have nothing to show so at the moment. Nor does Volocopter, besides some cargo drones.
- nradov 3y agoGetting an aircraft certified and then scaling up manufacturing is extraordinarily difficult. The most likely exit plan for Joby and other eVTOL start-ups has always been to demonstrate technical viability and then get acquired by Airbus or one of the other big aerospace companies for the IP.
- hef19898 3y agoOr automotive, the large aerospace OEMs could do it themselves. Bad news for those start-ups is the push to EVs really heated up by now, automotive OEMs have their hands full. Those IP acquisitions are tricky so. The IP has to be really advanced and good, say A220 good, and even then the question remains if the price will even close to the total funding those companies got.
- neom 3y agoSouth Korea is really committed to bringing this product to market, they have huge buy-in from the Government and Industry. I did some poking around 4/5 years ago when they started talking about it and the folks I spoke with said it's not just blind ambition, there is a strong will to make it happen. They've made quite a lot of progress, I'm still very skeptical people want to use massive drones to move around, but I think this might end up being one I'm wrong on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKGK_8gmNQ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKGK_8gmNQ4
- IsTom 3y agoThese rotors at person-height look pretty terrifying to me.
- bilsbie 3y agoWhy aren’t we pursuing gyrocopters! They’re STOVL, extremely simple to build, and basically fail safe. I’d imagine a small batter pack and motor could even make it vertical takeoff too.
- xnx 3y agoObligatory: https://xkcd.com/1972/ https://xkcd.com/1972/
- ricardobeat 3y agoWouldn’t they be a lot less efficient? This vehicle already does VTOL, and switches to wing flight for cruising, I don’t see how you could beat that. On safety, the theory doesn’t always match reality, if I recall correctly Gyros are statistically one of the most dangerous recreational aircraft [source needed].
- avidiax 3y ago> I’d imagine a small batter pack and motor could even make it vertical takeoff too. That makes it a helicopter. A gyrocopter has to have an unpowered rotor, which makes it much easier to fly, since there is no reaction force requiring a tail rotor.
- dingaling 3y agoMany gyrocopters can clutch the gearbox to the rotor for "jump" takeoff, they ae still classed as gyros because the rotor is unpowered in flight. On the ground the torque is resisted by the wheel brakes. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3RPYWmdv174 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3RPYWmdv174
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> They’re STOVL This doesn’t work in an urban environment. It’s why the Rotodyne started up with rockets.
- histriosum 3y agoFail safe? Most definitely not. I'm a gyrocopter fan, but their safety record is not fantastic. Among other traits is a significant sensitivity to negative G maneuvers, even mild ones. Commercial AMEL Instrument rated here. I do hope to get my gyro rating at some point, but the safety statistics are definitely not comparable to fixed wing.
- m3kw9 3y agoHow much noise would these electric giant drones add if they became as popular as gray coach buses?
- TheLoafOfBread 3y agoEnough to make them swiftly banned from any city. See Concorde getting banned because of sonic boom.
- xnx 3y agoNot much. A diesel bus at street level is going to make more noise than an air taxi at cruising altitude: https://youtu.be/IX7rdJm5v6s?si=-eGOJKYidDWTRmHw&t=91 https://youtu.be/IX7rdJm5v6s?si=-eGOJKYidDWTRmHw&t=91
- zagrebian 3y agoExplain like I’m five: Why do these modern electric helicopters have many small rotors, but traditional helicopters have only one big horizontal rotor? If many small rotors is more efficient, why haven’t non-electric helicopters done it?
- uoaei 3y agoYou can rotate them in such a way to use the lifting surfaces (wings) for efficiency during ranged flight while preserving VTOL capabilities. They're more redundant versions of the Osprey.
- anon-sre-srm 3y agoOsprey.. the Corvair deathtrap of the skies.
- detritus 3y agoNot a helicopter, nor an expert in them, but modern electrical engines are significantly more efficient than traditional ICE motors. Also, the scalability of existing small-form quadcopters (etc) means it's much easier for companies to start from the ground up with that sort of tech, rather than developing a complicated rotor/contra rotor set up. Basically, it would have been very difficult to go the contemporary route in decades gone by, whilst it doesn't quite make as much sense for the usage scenarios to go the traditional route.
- card_zero 3y agoCan we hear from somebody who is a helicopter please
- mandeepj 3y ago? Why do these modern electric helicopters have many small rotors, but traditional helicopters have only one big horizontal rotor? If many small rotors is more efficient so that it can easily maneuver around skyscrappers while beating city traffic and picking their customers
- 3y ago
- V__ 3y agoThese airtaxis are in my opinion just another gimmick. Something in the future, but just around the corner, politicians can point to, which will "solve all traffic problems" thus making public transport investments right now unnecessary or unattractive. Hyperloop, Vegas tunnel, airtaxis. I wonder what will be next. Maybe a monorail?
- staplers 3y agoNot a single video of this thing flying.
- hef19898 3y agoRegarding monorail, some are already ahead of you... https://duckduckgo.com/?q=magnetschwebebahn+deutschland+nahverkehr&t=fpas&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=magnetschwebebahn+deutschland+nahv... Among others, Nürnberg and Berlin...
- jijijijij 3y agoHysterically enough, Berlin's current mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) wants to, again, build a monorail in the city. This pipedream evergreen is probably inspired as yesterday's modernity fiction accompanying the ideological deconstruction of recently built bike lanes, which may indeed prove euphoric to his senile voter base struggling to recall it as an already tried, and/or failed concept. Of course, like with the paper reactor, hypoloop and hot air taxi, no politician really gives a shit, if it's a scam or not. It's just the car on a shtick to drag horse and the buggy in aromatic circles towards their post-politics career...
- xnx 3y agoLike electric cars, electric air taxis aren't for every application, but for specific uses, they have some huge advantages: safer, quieter, more reliable, cheaper to operate, easier to fly. Electric air taxis could open up whole new areas that would've been infeasible before for air ambulance and short commuter flights. Compare how much more aerial photography and videography we have now with drones compared to when manned helicopters were the only option. This is not vaporware. Joby is currently testing in NYC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD_dF8YngpA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD_dF8YngpA
- throawayonthe 3y ago[dead]
- anon-sre-srm 3y agoMore ways to pointlessly waste energy to benefit a few when there is a climate crisis that demands more energy efficiency, such as via terrestrial mass transportation.
- audunw 3y agoI don't think air taxis in cities will be particularly beneficial to society, but I think the underlying technology will be very beneficial. It's like the Tesla Roadster. A toy for rich people. But it helped kick-start the EV revolution. Which didn't just give us electric cars, but eventually also electric buses which are just a godsend for cities IMO. (I had an almost auditory whiplash when I visited Taipei because the new electric buses looks like exactly like the old ICE buses, and the ICE buses they have there are SO loud in a city that's already too loud.. and then this EV bus just passes by completely silently.. but I digress.. way too much) We have a lot of very small airports here in Norway which are underutilized. Sometimes you end up taking a plane to a larger regional airport only to take a 2 hour bus ride to a town.. that has an airport.. Electric aircrafts will unlock the potential of these airports, since the planes will be cheaper to operate and much more silent (the airports could be close to the town center), and I'm quite sure it'll be significantly more energy efficient than traveling to these cities today. Electric planes can be very energy efficient per passenger km. So if a train is not an option they could beat all other modes in efficiency.
- ElijahLynn 3y agoGood point, and also kicked off electric semi-trucks and pickup trucks: > Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles account for less than 5% of the vehicles on the road but produce over 20% of the emissions from the transportation sector, which currently accounts for more than one-third of U.S. green-house gas emissions. Most of the Amazon Prime trucks in my area (Hillsboro, OR (Portland Metro) are now electric Rivian, and those things are running probably 20+ hours a day. source: https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-projects-zero-emissions-medium-and-heavy-duty-electric-trucks-will-be-cheaper-diesel#:~:text=Medium%2D%20and%20heavy%2Dduty%20vehicles,U.S.%20green%2Dhouse%20gas%20emissions https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-projects-zero-emissions-....
- eqvinox 3y ago"pic related": https://miau.jeder.pl/notes/9qm8lgtscp39oqo8 https://miau.jeder.pl/notes/9qm8lgtscp39oqo8 (This comment has zero calori^Winformational value)