161–170 of 218 posts
> “Self-flying aircraft is so much easier than what the auto companies are trying to do with self-driving cars” I guess until everybody starts using them :)
Because there is no terrain to worry about.
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> a car in the middle of the desert will just roll until it stops And an airplane will glide pretty far until it stops. Every single pilot has practical first-hand experience with unpowered landings- they're on the curriculum when you're getting your license. It's a remarkably survivable thing to do, especially in a desert with a road like your example.
> Every single pilot has practical first-hand experience with unpowered landing Considering many people can barely handle driving normal cars correctly, the number of average flying-car consumers that will have airplane pilot-level training, knowledge, skill, and maintain sanity in emergency situations like unpowered landings is minuscule.
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> The examples you gave take no more than 30 seconds. Sure, FADEC can eliminate most of them, but they're quick. Sure. Maybe I shouldn't have picked the engine section as the example. In the context of this thread, way more than that is needed. > Put another way, the latest fighter jets and commercial heavies still have significant visual preflights. And that is fine. The stakes are high, the plane itself is much mor…
The "staff" you mention that does the walk-around of the major commercial airliner is/are also the person(s) who will be piloting the plane, IIRC.
I'm really glad someone is working on this!
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The "staff" you mention that does the walk-around of the major commercial airliner is/are also the person(s) who will be piloting the plane, IIRC.
I just flew on an a320 and watched the plane taxi to the gate. Someone on the ground crew in an orange vest walked around the plane and did a visual inspection using a flashlight. At no point did someone from the flight crew leave the plane.
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There are safety measures such as autorotation and airframe parachutes that can safely land the aircraft after an engine failure.
And what happens when a Cessna parachutes onto the roof of your house? Onto the middle of a busy street? etc. If we were all using flying cars, this would become a regular occurrence. It's just not practical at that scale.
Helicopters and small planes already exist. We might have autonomous helicopters and small planes in the future, but flying car concept is flawed and not because it's hard to build one. - Preflight checks and flight safety. Larry should first build normal small aircraft that can do without constant manual checks before flight. This is actually good subgoal to work with even without flying cars in mind. Reliable infra…
Did you read the entire article? An entire section was devoted to how the rise of electric engines addresses the noise issue, as well as some of the safety issues by removing the bomb (internal combustion engine) from the vehicle.
Helicopters and small planes already exist. We might have autonomous helicopters and small planes in the future, but flying car concept is flawed and not because it's hard to build one. - Preflight checks and flight safety. Larry should first build normal small aircraft that can do without constant manual checks before flight. This is actually good subgoal to work with even without flying cars in mind. Reliable infra…
You forgot the big one: Most small aircraft cannot fly in bad weather. If it's raining, windy, or even cloudy these things are going to be grounded if the pilot doesn't have an instrument rating.
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So lets get silly here; granted I wanted a flying car ever since seeing a Spinner in Blade Runner. Deploy a balloon above the vehicle when not under power which reuses the helium when not moving beyond a set speed. Pretty sure it can be an airfoil in itself and compact enough to sit above the craft. When transitioning to full on flight it can be partially deflated to reduce its air resistance but still retain the sha…
To "reuse" the helium it would need to compress it again - and that uses a lot of energy. Not to mention that you would need a lot of helium, and helium, almost like hydrogen, has a tendency to escape from its containers so you need really heavy lead bottles to store even a few litres. It's not impossible, but it does not seem practical in any way.