A flying car!! But its not cheap!

[Thony]

@Lilninjsways 

 

How is 55 min flight for $6 not cheap ?????

[GeekJump]

11 hours ago, leadeater said:

Flying cars will be a thing when we don't fly them, can't see them ever being allowed under manual human control.

I don't think so. Unless it becomes fail proof governments would still require a pilots license (or some other hard to get card). Cars have basic autopilot but we still need to know how to drive and planes have fancier autopilot but there still always has to be someone behind the stick in case. The only way I see it happening is if there is major infrastructure changes to go with it. I wouldn't be comfortable knowing random people are flying over my house. Also I see people daily tossing stuff out there cars, imagine from 30,000 ft in the air? You know what we need to prevent most ground accidents...

 

WE NEED BIG NETS! 

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, GeekJump said:

I don't think so. Unless it becomes fail proof governments would still require a pilots license (or some other hard to get card). Cars have basic autopilot but we still need to know how to drive and planes have fancier autopilot but there still always has to be someone behind the stick in case. The only way I see it happening is if there is major infrastructure changes to go with it. I wouldn't be comfortable knowing random people are flying over my house. Also I see people daily tossing stuff out there cars, imagine from 30,000 ft in the air? You know what we need to prevent most ground accidents...

 

WE NEED BIG NETS! 

Lol true, however when it comes to airliners they already don't need a pilot at all. They are there for us mostly as the majority of people wouldn't get on a plane without a pilot, if something goes so badly wrong that the pilot has to take over then the plane isn't landing.

 

Still I'm 100% confident when it comes to flying cars or similar there will be no way to manually fly them, we have consistently proven that we are incapable of controlling a vehicle safely and responsibly in two dimensions so adding a 3rd is frankly out of the question. It doesn't have anything to do with skill, ability or training people do unsafe things on purpose all the time which is the primary reason manual control for the masses of flying vehicles just won't be a thing ever.

[HarryNyquist]

1 hour ago, Sauron said:

Besides regulating air traffic would be a nightmare.

It'd be a good case for finally implementing automatic ATC instead of relying on overworked, overpaid humans.

[MEC-777]

It doesn't use jet engines. It uses electric motor powered ducted fans. There is a pretty huge difference.  

[zMeul]

"electric" jet engine - please GTFO! 

 

nothing electric about a combustion chamber

 

[Sauron]

30 minutes ago, HarryNyquist said:

It'd be a good case for finally implementing automatic ATC instead of relying on overworked, overpaid humans.

Except the driver/pilot has to be ready to react - and if you had to wait for skies to be clear you'd never be able to take off.

[WMGroomAK]

19 hours ago, Lilninjsways said:

The craft is powered by 36 separate jet engines mounted on its 10-meter long wings via 12 movable flaps. At take-off, the flaps are pointed downwards to provide vertical lift. And once airborne, the flaps gradually tilt into a horizontal position, providing forward thrust.

During the tests, the jet was piloted remotely, but its operators say their first manned flight is close-at-hand. And Lilium claims that its electric battery “consumes around 90 percent less energy than drone-style aircraft,” enabling the aircraft to achieve a range of 300 kilometers (183 miles) with a maximum cruising speed of 300 kph (183 mph).

Looking at the companies website, this just strikes me as complete vaporware to raise money from investors...  The Electric Jet engine that they talk about is not a Jet engine but a prop system similar to any drone and none of their staff appear to have much of a background in aviation technology or design.

[Daroll]

On 21.04.2017 at 5:58 PM, HarryNyquist said:

It'd be a good case for finally implementing automatic ATC instead of relying on overworked, overpaid humans.

I dont think they are "overworked" from what i heard they work for 1-2 hours and have a long break before going back in front of the screen again but automatic ATC would be nice tho

[Lilninjsways]

On 4/21/2017 at 10:57 AM, Thony said:

@Lilninjsways 

 

How is 55 min flight for $6 not cheap ?????

no im talking bout the car haha

[Thony]

1 hour ago, Lilninjsways said:

no im talking bout the car haha

I have not found a pricing in the link u provided. How much is the cost of one ?

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 4/21/2017 at 4:02 PM, Sauron said:

It's just a vertical takeoff aircraft, if this counts as a flying car then a helicopter does too.

To me, reading "flying car" in this context is like hearing "steel horses" when talking about trains. 

 

It may not strictly be a helicopter, but it is still some for of ultralight aircraft. 

Rule of thumb: if our flies, it ain't a car

 

[spwath]

Um hold on... its not a car. it cant drive. My understanding was a flying car was a car. This is just  a small plane with verticle takeoff/landing....

[Sauron]

On 4/25/2017 at 2:56 AM, SpaceGhostC2C said:

To me, reading "flying car" in this context is like hearing "steel horses" when talking about trains. 

 

It may not strictly be a helicopter, but it is still some for of ultralight aircraft. 

Rule of thumb: if our flies, it ain't a car

 

Unless it literally is a car in everything except that it flies Harry Potter style

[MoistyMcMoistface]

This VTOL is over complicated sensationalism! Electric helicopters are totally the way to go but the current traditional format is the way of doing it of one very large router and a small tail router. Honestly though it is basic that having many many small engines is almost always less efficient than one large engine/motor. If they put all of the effort of this project to produce a conventional mono-router swash plated traditional style helicopter it would be so much better! There is a reason all modern helicopters (excluding tandem routers)  are the same format as the O.G VTOL:

[The Sikorsky R-4 was the first masted produced VTOL in history. Even a small child could identify this as a helicopter, as it looks the same as all modern helicopters. This is a testament to the efficiency of Igor Sikorsky's enduring 1940's  design. ]

 

  Craming an array of small engines is not the answer to this problem, think of all the waste heat the small jets would make. Think about the friction of all the bearings of all the compressor blades on all the shafts. It is exponential how much energy would be lost dude to friction. With one engine all the torque would interface with one router shaft, meaning one point of mechanical friction instead of many shafts with many points of mechanical friction. I guaranty you that the weight of the aircraft would be greatly reduced as there would be WAY WAY less redundancy if you just had one motor/engine to lift the aircraft, the fairings the various pluming and pumps of all kinds the electrical and digital everything think about it. 

[Lilninjsways]

On 4/24/2017 at 11:33 AM, Thony said:

I have not found a pricing in the link u provided. How much is the cost of one ?

4.3 million

[CTR640]

I can see drugslords see potentials in that shit: drug trafficking like never before.