Sikorsky’s autonomous helicopter tech is ready for takeoff
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Re: Sikorsky’s autonomous helicopter tech is ready for takeoff
#2Related: Where's My Flying Car? Coming in for a Landing Soon
Re: Sikorsky’s autonomous helicopter tech is ready for takeoff
#3Related: Where's My Flying Car? Coming in for a Landing Soon https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19318425
A flying car isn't useful for the military or anyone else for that matter this one is.
Re: Sikorsky’s autonomous helicopter tech is ready for takeoff
#4Sikorsky's story is really fascinating to me. 4 years after immigrating from Russia he founded an aviation company in USA. And in 15 years he was already building airplanes and then first ever helicopter! (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Igor_Sik...)
If he stayed in Russia the course of human history might have been very different ... if he was developing all that technology for the USSR... and not USA.
tell me about boot strapping!! :
"In 1923, Sikorsky formed the Sikorsky Manufacturing Company in Roosevelt, New York.[36] He was helped by several former Russian military officers. Among Sikorsky's chief supporters was composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, who introduced himself by writing a check for US$5,000 (approximately $61,000 in 2007).[37] Although his prototype was damaged in its first test flight, Sikorsky persuaded his reluctant backers to invest another $2,500. With the additional funds, he produced the S-29, one of the first twin-engine aircraft in America, with a capacity for 14 passengers and a speed of 115 mph.[38] The performance of the S-29, slow compared to military aircraft of 1918, proved to be a "make or break" moment for Sikorsky's funding."
Re: Sikorsky’s autonomous helicopter tech is ready for takeoff
#5Urban air mobility space is heating up. Blade and Sikorsky's AAG announced an agreement to provide a new on-demand urban mobility option to the NYC area. Uber has their Elevate team working on this problem as well. Blade launched an urban mobility pilot program in the Bay Area last week. Received an early, invite code from a friend last week, SF-3FTPTV.
Re: Sikorsky’s autonomous helicopter tech is ready for takeoff
#6Sikorsky's story is really fascinating to me. 4 years after immigrating from Russia he founded an aviation company in USA. And in 15 years he was already building airplanes and then first ever helicopter! ( https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Igor_Sik... ) If he stayed in Russia the course of human history might have been very different ... if he was developing all that technology for the USSR... and…
wow I did not know he was Russian, thats quite a feat.
also fascinating is Mazda...the founder literally built it on ground zero in Hiroshima, using unexploded US munitions and whatever parts he could scavenge.
It's like some people....they see adversity...and they make it their bitch. its awe inspiring.
Re: Sikorsky’s autonomous helicopter tech is ready for takeoff
#7Sikorsky's story is really fascinating to me. 4 years after immigrating from Russia he founded an aviation company in USA. And in 15 years he was already building airplanes and then first ever helicopter! ( https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Igor_Sik... ) If he stayed in Russia the course of human history might have been very different ... if he was developing all that technology for the USSR... and…
He probably would have died in the gulag or at the very least not achieved what he did. Stalin was not fond of the aerospace industry so the guy who's at the leading edge of designing rotary winged aircraft would likely find his name high up on the wrong list and if he escaped that fate the money wouldn't have exactly been flowing his way.
Re: Sikorsky’s autonomous helicopter tech is ready for takeoff
#8Sikorsky's story is really fascinating to me. 4 years after immigrating from Russia he founded an aviation company in USA. And in 15 years he was already building airplanes and then first ever helicopter! ( https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Igor_Sik... ) If he stayed in Russia the course of human history might have been very different ... if he was developing all that technology for the USSR... and…
He probably would have died in the gulag or at the very least not achieved what he did. Stalin was not fond of the aerospace industry so the guy who's at the leading edge of designing rotary winged aircraft would likely find his name high up on the wrong list and if he escaped that fate the money wouldn't have exactly been flowing his way.
Its definitely a strong possibility that his talent would have gone unrealized!
Imagine it didn't. Literally the outcome of WWII could have been very different.
Of course "what if's" dont count. Still fascinating to me how much he's accomplished 100 years ago!
Here we are today burning 100's of millions in cash of investors money with "0 results" (really). lol
Re: Sikorsky’s autonomous helicopter tech is ready for takeoff
#9Sikorsky's story is really fascinating to me. 4 years after immigrating from Russia he founded an aviation company in USA. And in 15 years he was already building airplanes and then first ever helicopter! ( https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Igor_Sik... ) If he stayed in Russia the course of human history might have been very different ... if he was developing all that technology for the USSR... and…
> If he stayed in Russia the course of human history might have been very different... if he was developing all that technology for the USSR... and not USA.
I have serious doubts about this. His talents might be lost for humanity completely. Post-revolution and before WW2 there were a lot of constructors and engineers who were prosecuted, displaced or even worse by the Soviets.
The wikipedia says "After the Bolshevik revolution began in 1917, Igor Sikorsky fled his homeland, because the new government threatened to shoot him." (the citation link is broken, unfortunately).
This reminds me of Sergey Korolev's history. He was basically the father of Soviet rocket-building. He has survived the purges by pure luck. The leaders of his institute were executed, he was tortured to get the confession, lost his teeth, went through the gulag and got back. How many of these talented people ended up being not so lucky is hard to imagine.
Even the work results might not have protected them. For example, take the chief engineer of T-34 engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Chelpan. He got awarded for the invention, arrested and executed the next year, and then rehabilitated a few years later. There were so many stories like these.
Re: Sikorsky’s autonomous helicopter tech is ready for takeoff
#10>> Flying a helicopter requires such an intense mental load, he says, that even small things like pushing the “talk” button can put a novice pilot in peril.
No they are not that hard to fly. A bare-bones helicopter with nothing more than the minimum parts to qualify as a helicopter is indeed an unsteady beast. But such helicopters are rare, used mostly for training purposes. Modern machines, even ancient ones, have things like gyroscopes to take much of the load off the pilot. And autopilots really do work (auto, not autonomous). They can hold a steady heading/alt. Feed them data from a radar altimeter and they can hover like a rock.
The computers can fly the aircraft, they can literally make it move as needed, but that is a totally different problem than deciding where to move the aircraft. The pilot's job is making the judgement calls necessary to keep the aircraft safe. Show me a computer than can determine whether an approach is safe enough to execute, whether the weather en route is acceptable. Show me a computer than an judge which path to take to avoid carrying an unsteady slung load over someone's head.