Adds a whole new dynamic to the term 'fender bender'.
Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
11–20 of 242 posts
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
aerodynamic stability to glide down to emergency landing area should problem arise. more power efficient in cruise flight.
Helicopters can land without power (autorotate) or if the tail rotator fails. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation
Helicopters are actually safer (than some set of airplanes that might include a bunch of recreational planes), because if something breaks, it's easier to find a place to land.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#13Why would the VTOL miniplanes described in the article be better than small helicopters, which take off the same way?
energy efficiency.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#14For the love of God, make something affordable (50's? 60's?) and I'd buy one in a snap... my daily commute is PITA and sore nead of drone'ification.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
aerodynamic stability to glide down to emergency landing area should problem arise. more power efficient in cruise flight.
Helicopters can land without power (autorotate) or if the tail rotator fails. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation
Yeah, I know a helicopter pilot, I was shocked when he told me that. Would love to hear a aviation enthusiast compare safety differences and failure modes between helicopter autorotation and plane glide...
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#16Interesting title considering the article's as much about Uber and battery efficiency a la Tesla as it is Larry Page.
I'm still curious about how highways for these types of aircraft will be implemented. I imagine the goal is ubiquity and at some point, with thousands of these things flying around, flight paths will be the bottleneck.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#17How's the Ehang 184 coming along?[1] That's an electric flying car, essentially a big 8-prop drone, announced last June. They're targeting short-distance travel within big, crowded cities in China. China's 1% will be able to get across Beijing in 10 minutes. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4nDFgVx2o
First comment makes a good observation. When a plane loses power, it glides. When a helicopter loses power, it autorotates [1].
If a single engine on a quadcopter loses power, it crashes [2]. There is work being done on mitigating this, but I don't see why you'd go for a quad versus tri- or helicopter.
(Quadcopters are better than other aerial platforms at one thing: maneuverability. To get this agility they sacrifice speed, efficiency and payload weight.)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation
[2] https://www.quora.com/Can-a-quadcopter-fly-without-one-rotor
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#18I was thinking of a quadcopter taxi design that could be designed to protect the passenger in the event they fell from many stories. Something that would suspend the single rider's seat in the center of the cockpit from cables attached to the shell. Whatever the best design for the classic 'egg drop' test would probably be a good start.
If you could guarantee survival from terminal velocity I think a drone taxi could become a viable mode of transport.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#19Why would the VTOL miniplanes described in the article be better than small helicopters, which take off the same way?
energy efficiency.
Re: Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
#20Why would the VTOL miniplanes described in the article be better than small helicopters, which take off the same way?
Pilot training time.
At the Hiller Museum in San Mateo one of the docents was talking about how helicopters seem so great but they are so hard to fly with the pilot managing rotor pitch, rotor speed, and countering torque with the tail rotor. A typical quad/hexa/octo copter type vehicle is much easier to fly. (as is a gyrocopter but it cannot really take off vertically)