KittyHawk is not an Alphabet startup. It is no affiliated with Alphabet. The title is misleading.
Title should definitely be updated. Furthermore, as far as I can tell it should be "Kitty Hawk" not "KittyHawk" [https://kittyhawk.aero/]
Cora – Kitty Hawk's prototype air taxi [video]
111–120 of 286 posts
Re: Cora – Kitty Hawk's prototype air taxi [video]
#112All I can think about is Clifford Simak's "City."
Re: Cora – Kitty Hawk's prototype air taxi [video]
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine being able to live 90 miles from a town and commuting in 30 minutes regadless of peak hours. As for the noise, if it can land vertically, I can immagine it making a steep descent on top of a tall building, unloading passengers and then autonomously taking off to pick somone else some other place.
It won't be 30 minutes. It'd be a few hours. First because they said it could go faster than 150kph, which means it tops out at roughly 90 miles an hour. Second, the range of the thing is about 60 miles, so you'd have to charge it partway.
I don't know how practical it is to build one like these yet, but really like the design of Lilium, and it has 2x the speed:
Re: Cora – Kitty Hawk's prototype air taxi [video]
#114I don't like that they're touting no emissions. Electricity has to be generated and in the US that's mainly coal. Hybrid vehicles are closer to having it right where running the car charges it and you can get by burning significantly less fuel. Strictly electrical has not been shown to be an energy saver or a flag bearer of emissions reduction. In many cases so far it has been a cause of more pollution than modern en…
> Electricity has to be generated and in the US that's mainly coal.
Huh? Coal is only 30% of the USA’s energy production, natural gas is higher at 34%.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electrici...
The other points in your post are equally dubious, do you have sources?
Re: Cora – Kitty Hawk's prototype air taxi [video]
#115KittyHawk is not an Alphabet startup. It is no affiliated with Alphabet. The title is misleading.
Title should definitely be updated. Furthermore, as far as I can tell it should be "Kitty Hawk" not "KittyHawk" [ https://kittyhawk.aero/ ]
The has it as 'Kittyhawk' but the footer says 'Kitty Hawk' and the terms say 'Kitty Hawk Corporation'
Re: Cora – Kitty Hawk's prototype air taxi [video]
#116I don't like that they're touting no emissions. Electricity has to be generated and in the US that's mainly coal. Hybrid vehicles are closer to having it right where running the car charges it and you can get by burning significantly less fuel. Strictly electrical has not been shown to be an energy saver or a flag bearer of emissions reduction. In many cases so far it has been a cause of more pollution than modern en…
Coal is 30.1% of US electricity generation and dropping fast which is a long way from 1/2. We do use 31.7% natural gas, but that's still only adds up to 61.8%. On top of that the thermal efficiency is vastly better than cars.
Re: Cora – Kitty Hawk's prototype air taxi [video]
#117Contrary to almost every comment here so far, this is both innovative and energy efficient. Let's talk energy efficiency first. Once it's up in the air, it's has a similar profile to a normal single engine airplane. A Cirrus SR22 can go 1,200 miles on 80 gallons of gas. That's roughly speaking 15 miles per gallon - better than many pickup trucks or large SUVs. And that's while going 180 mph. Slower is more fuel effic…
> A Cirrus SR22 can go 1,200 miles on 80 gallons of gas. That's roughly speaking 15 miles per gallon - better than many pickup trucks or large SUVs. Sure, let's take the most energy efficient aircraft and compare it to the least energy efficient passenger vehicles??? I mean, how can one even pretend that is a fair comparison. More generally for energy efficiency, it is well known that the most efficient trip is a sho…
I think lowering the time cost of coming into the office would lead to more telecommuting than less. Since you can get into the office in 15 minutes, you don't have to go to the office every day just in case you need to have an impromptu meeting.
Re: Cora – Kitty Hawk's prototype air taxi [video]
#118Contrary to almost every comment here so far, this is both innovative and energy efficient. Let's talk energy efficiency first. Once it's up in the air, it's has a similar profile to a normal single engine airplane. A Cirrus SR22 can go 1,200 miles on 80 gallons of gas. That's roughly speaking 15 miles per gallon - better than many pickup trucks or large SUVs. And that's while going 180 mph. Slower is more fuel effic…
I don't get how it is physically possible that this plane is energy efficient? The smaller prop, the less efficient the thrust conversion. You also need laminar air for rear props to be efficient. The drag on the wings should create a ridiculous wake behind the aircraft. I would love to learn how KittyHawk are trying to mitigate these problems (which are huge constraints even for major players).
Re: Cora – Kitty Hawk's prototype air taxi [video]
#119Can anyone chime in how this aircraft is so energy efficient? It seems like the props on the wing will give a ridiculous amount of drag. Also, one of the key requirements for an energy efficient rear prop plane is super laminar air going to through the rear prop for efficient thrust. The wing design seems to remove this advantage. Edit: Also, I thought smaller props for vertical flight is significantly less efficient…
I don't know for sure, but I think that autorotation of the multiple vertical rotors provide substantial lift even if they're not being actively driven, similar to the tree seeds that autorotate as they fall.
Re: Cora – Kitty Hawk's prototype air taxi [video]
#120Finally we are getting flying cars instead of 140 characters.