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Flying Car (and 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!)

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Re: Flying Car (and 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!)

#31

Post by hasenj »

aurora72 wrote: post #5

It looks like a HOAX, the video doesn't show the vehicle in a test fly, or during a take off. 98% of the video either shows the vehicle going on the ground just like other non-flying cars or shows people discussing about a flying car.

Why the downvote? it really does look like a hoax.

Plus when people say "flaying car" I expect a sci-fi like flying care: that it can hover and fly vertically, not have a parachute-like thing attached to it.

This one really almost looks like an april fools joke.

Re: Flying Car (and 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!)

#33

Post by nkassis »

lucasjung wrote: post #12
nkassis wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually he makes it clear in the video, it's a good car that can be driven in excess of 95 mph does 0-60 in 3.9 seconds. So it is definitively a flying car ;p

The only logical use case is as a driving plane, because using it as a car more than the absolute minimum necessary would be prohibitively expensive. First: insurance. You would have to insure it as both a plane and as a car, and insurance companies aren't going to know how to handle that, which means they'll either refuse to touch it or charge a premium. Even if such vehicles became common enough for insurance compa…

Well the likelihood that this becomes popular and allowed on road (imagine if everyone was to flyoff in the middle of a traffic jam, you'd get air jam and probably planes hitting each other).

It's more likely to be used in remote areas like in the middle of Ecuador as Steve Saint the guy in the video was hinting at. Or like here in Canada, some areas in northern canada aren't accessible by road from the south, this could fly the required miles to reach the next road. (well it would have to be better insulated and fly a little faster considering the distances).

Re: Flying Car (and 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!)

#34

Post by codex »

Yikes, what a death trap. This monstrosity combines the unreliability of a car with the dangers of a small aircraft.

Cars are not as reliable as aircraft because they're not maintained as well, and the operators are far less disciplined.

It is generally accepted that small aircraft aviation is generally 10x less safe than driving on both a passenger-mile and per-trip basis. And most small aircraft are flown for recreation, not transportation. When you fly for transportation there is a need to get from point A to point B on some reasonable schedule, which pressures the pilot to take all kinds of risks with weather, maintenance, etc. And that's for a rigorously licensed pilot. I doubt that the pilots that fly this thing will be up to the quality of even your average Cessna pilot.

Combine these two factors, and you have a flying coffin. I would not be comfortable living within even a hundred miles of one of these.

Re: Flying Car (and 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!)

#35

Post by jessedhillon »

dools wrote: post #6

This is the tribal adoption scenario he's referring to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mincaye

I was also more intrigued by that story than by the car/plane. This is his own account of the story, and his investigation years after the killing: http://www.atanycost.org/images/DidTheyHaveToDie.pdf

Re: Flying Car (and 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!)

#36

Post by mcobrien »

jeromec wrote: post #20
lucasjung wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only logical use case is as a driving plane, because using it as a car more than the absolute minimum necessary would be prohibitively expensive. First: insurance. You would have to insure it as both a plane and as a car, and insurance companies aren't going to know how to handle that, which means they'll either refuse to touch it or charge a premium. Even if such vehicles became common enough for insurance compa…

Airplane maintenance is way more expensive than car maintenance, but every hour you drive this thing on the road will count as an hour towards maintenance required at airplane rates. Yes, but this isn't an airplane. It's a flying car ;) Seriously, the maintenance comparison wouldn't appear to be the same. It looks like this thing has a propeller attached to a drag style engine. I would expect maintenance costs to be…

Actually, it's a "powered parachute"[1] which relaxes the FAA rules required to fly one[2]. I'd guess maintenance rules are relaxed as well.

[1] http://mavericklsa.com/releases.html [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_parachute

Re: Flying Car (and 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!)

#37

Post by yason »

If people had these, it wouldn't of course solve any of the classical 50's flying-car-in-a-traffic-jam problems. Instead, the jam would materialize mid-air with hundreds of these little flying cars looking for a strip of highway to land nearby a supermarket before they all run out of gas and start dropping like flies, unless they've already crashed into each other in the uncontrolled airspace in a very uncontrolled manner.

Luckily the guy was apparently envisioning usecases for medical and rescue team, mostly.

Re: Flying Car (and 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!)

#38

Post by danparsonson »

yason wrote: post #37

If people had these, it wouldn't of course solve any of the classical 50's flying-car-in-a-traffic-jam problems. Instead, the jam would materialize mid-air with hundreds of these little flying cars looking for a strip of highway to land nearby a supermarket before they all run out of gas and start dropping like flies, unless they've already crashed into each other in the uncontrolled airspace in a very uncontrolled m…

And then there's the unshielded people-blender mounted on the back....

Looks great for the emergency services market he's aiming at, but for the consumer market he wants to target to help get things moving - scary stuff.

Re: Flying Car (and 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!)

#39

Post by VladRussian »

any flying car discussion can't be complete without mentioning at least Hiller's, Piasecki's AirGeep and WASP :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgNlumaVPDw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SERvwWALOM (modern attempt to repeat it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBUOCK3FZxg&feature=relat...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAEi3SMVE60&feature=relat...

One of the Hiller's is here in Bay Area in San Carlos museum.

Re: Flying Car (and 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!)

#40

Post by _urga »

jessedhillon wrote: post #35
dools wrote: post #6

This is the tribal adoption scenario he's referring to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mincaye

I was also more intrigued by that story than by the car/plane. This is his own account of the story, and his investigation years after the killing: http://www.atanycost.org/images/DidTheyHaveToDie.pdf

Thanks for the link.
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