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YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

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Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#271
post #54

Boeing is going in with an air taxi https://www.flyingmag.com/boeing-air-taxi-prototype-test-fli... They are already talking about cargo is more likely than passengers. Ever the same story in transportation.

We have a cargo version that will carry up to 450-600lbs and faster than any existing helicopter and way way faster than any e-VTOL

Good, because as much as people talk about personal transport, the cargo story is the one that makes the money.

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#272

The rider's orientation looks...insane. They won't be able to see anything through the body of the thing (gotta squint at a little display to understand what the heck you're flying towards?). All their weight is going to be on their crotch (and, like, the front part of it) or maybe their stomach. Their neck is going to be fighting gravity in the most awful way.

[deleted]

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#273

Where are they getting the engine? You can get model aircraft jet engines with enough power for this.[1] Various human-carrying craft have been built that way, such as the Zapata Flyboard.[2] But the engines have a lifespan measured in hours and not enough reliability for carrying humans. That's why all the demo videos of these things are over water, or tethered. People have been trying to build small, cheap jet engi…

Agreed, this seems like a huge problem and this > The startup’s most pertinent problem is creating the autonomous stabilization technologies that will make flying the Speeder effortless and safe. looks like a smokescreen for marketing to the tech crowd. Everyone is going to believe they can solve the stabilisation problem: that's "just software" and we see demos of robots solving stabilisation problems all the time.…

Yes, you are completely correct! It is much more than software to solve this issue. It is so much different than self-leveling robots on a surface because we are floating in the air with no hard attachment point. We are currently going through multiple iterations on our 1:3 scale prototype so that we can dial in the stabilization systems so that we have the correct flight characteristics.

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#274
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bit suspicious of the camera shake when it's zoomed in before takeoff. I don't have video editing software available to me at this moment, but it would be interesting to track a few points and see if the path they trace out is actually random or if it looks artificial. Artificial camera shake is easy to spot this way if the VFX specialist was careless.

We wish we could fake these videos! Check out our youtube channel to see all the flights we have done all over the world! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC68MUrNZtEgn9wHyZhcnJjw

While you are here, can you discuss the noise level?

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#277

Where are they getting the engine? You can get model aircraft jet engines with enough power for this.[1] Various human-carrying craft have been built that way, such as the Zapata Flyboard.[2] But the engines have a lifespan measured in hours and not enough reliability for carrying humans. That's why all the demo videos of these things are over water, or tethered. People have been trying to build small, cheap jet engi…

We are working also on micro turbo fans (250 hrs

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#278
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We wish we could fake these videos! Check out our youtube channel to see all the flights we have done all over the world! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC68MUrNZtEgn9wHyZhcnJjw

While you are here, can you discuss the noise level?

Depends on which aircraft but the JB11 is approx 110dba at 25ft

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#279

Where are they getting the engine? You can get model aircraft jet engines with enough power for this.[1] Various human-carrying craft have been built that way, such as the Zapata Flyboard.[2] But the engines have a lifespan measured in hours and not enough reliability for carrying humans. That's why all the demo videos of these things are over water, or tethered. People have been trying to build small, cheap jet engi…

Based on the spec I'm guessing it is an AMT Nike

Five engines in the render, assume 1 is redundant:

705lbs to metric: 3134N. Divide by 4 = 784N which is _exactly_ the max thrust of a Nike.

Re: YC's latest moonshot bet is a startup building a $380K “flying motorcycle”

#280

Where are they getting the engine? You can get model aircraft jet engines with enough power for this.[1] Various human-carrying craft have been built that way, such as the Zapata Flyboard.[2] But the engines have a lifespan measured in hours and not enough reliability for carrying humans. That's why all the demo videos of these things are over water, or tethered. People have been trying to build small, cheap jet engi…

Agreed, this seems like a huge problem and this > The startup’s most pertinent problem is creating the autonomous stabilization technologies that will make flying the Speeder effortless and safe. looks like a smokescreen for marketing to the tech crowd. Everyone is going to believe they can solve the stabilisation problem: that's "just software" and we see demos of robots solving stabilisation problems all the time.…

We 100% agree and base level stablization is what we spend most of our engineering time on - both software and mech. We are learning a heck of a lot from our 1/3rd scale model
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