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Uber’s Flying Taxi

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Re: Uber’s Flying Taxi

#21

Post by jdgilbert21 »

chburger wrote: post #6
ukulele wrote: post #2

> Use that expertise to build a tilt-rotor commercial plane. They have, it's called the AW609. And like its predecessor V-22, it has crashed and killed the occupants early on and is nowhere near commercial readiness. Uber's estimates of commercial VTOL flight on an untested airframe by 2023 is total garbage, and they have to know it. The US military has sunk $50 Billion dollars into this problem over the last 30 year…

Haha, yes. Glad you said this. I don't know the exact requirement on FAA approving a new airplane / VTOL whatever, but I do know it takes a lot of time... Same reason I thought the supersonic company was a bit ambitious on their timeframe as well.

Development of a new airplane takes a long time. Trying to certify a plane by similarity usually takes 4-5 years, clean sheet design would take even longer.

Dassault's Falcon 6X (largely derived off the 5X that was cancelled due to design issues from the engine supplier Safran) was only just announced and isn't scheduled to go on sale until 2022, and a good portion of its design work has already been completed.

Re: Uber’s Flying Taxi

#23

Post by jdgilbert21 »

hndamien wrote: post #5

My guess is that there would be no pilots. Given they are attempting to get rid of drivers, getting rid of pilots in VTOL seems like an easier proposition with a large added weight advantage.

I think fully autonomous flight is a solution, but I also think it's further away than people imagine. For airplanes at least, the trickiest segments of flight are takeoffs and landings and even with today's advanced avionics suites, pilots are still in control for those portions of flight.

The other big factor is the passengers. Even if technology for fully autonomous passenger flight is available in the next 10 years, I don't think people will trust planes flying themselves.

Re: Uber’s Flying Taxi

#24

Post by evgen »

akavel wrote: post #17

"[Uber's] electrically powered [concept aircraft] with two rotors for vertical flight and one for horizontal flight [...] is reminiscent of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor, where the propellers transition from vertical flight to horizontal – the difference being Uber’s rotors are fixed." Whut the funk ??!? How is this in any way similar??? Uh, correct me if I don't see something, but to me this is like saying something li…

I think the main difference here is that in the Autogyro and Gyrodyne the rotor is basically acting as a wing (either through autorotation for the Autogyro or the application of limited power for the Gyrodyne) while everything I have seen of the Uber fantasy and similar drone scale-ups uses powered rotors for most of the vertical lift.

Re: Uber’s Flying Taxi

#26

Post by nickspacek »

robkop wrote: post #11
sschueller wrote: post #3

The V-22 also known as the "elevator of death" [1] [1] https://medium.com/war-is-boring/your-periodic-reminder-that...

Worth noting that after the initial problems the V-22 turned into the safest rotorcraft that the marines have to offer. [1] http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/v-22-is-the-safest-most-su...

Also worth noting is that a bit of searching found this connection between Boeing and Lexington Institute:

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/lexington-institutes-w...

"The Lexington Institute, in fact, is the one receiving money from a narrow corporate interest — Boeing."

EDIT: The only reason I looked for this connection was beacause the GP article was nicely written, long, and detailed, while the Lexington Institute seemed fluffy.

Re: Uber’s Flying Taxi

#27

Post by gbacon »

Mashimo wrote: post #14

> A private pilot’s license takes a minimum of 40 hours of flying time Wow, you can get a pilot's license that quick? In Germany you need 30h of driving just to get a regular car license. No large trailer or truck.

Yes, that is the minimum number of required flight hours, but a Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI) must endorse a student pilot to take the practical test or checkride. A CFI’s certificate renews automatically if 80% of the people (and at least five of them) she endorses over a two-year period pass the checkride on the first attempt.

I have heard the U.S. average for number of flight hours logged prior to taking the private checkride is about 70. I know a couple of people who passed the forty hours total time (TT) mark on the flight to go meet the Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) to take the checkride!

Re: Uber’s Flying Taxi

#28

Post by gbacon »

lejar wrote: post #16
Mashimo wrote: post #14

> A private pilot’s license takes a minimum of 40 hours of flying time Wow, you can get a pilot's license that quick? In Germany you need 30h of driving just to get a regular car license. No large trailer or truck.

You still need to spend a lot of time in theory, and especially in Germany you need your radio certificates in English and German (which themselves take a long time). After that, you can only fly a very limited subset of aircraft during the day under a certain altitude (and possibly certain weather conditions?). If you want to fly at night you need to get a certification for instrument flying.

In the U.S., a private pilot may fly at night with no additional training or rating.

Re: Uber’s Flying Taxi

#29

Post by ben_w »

paulific wrote: post #15
melkiaur wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My guess is that Uber simply wants to maintain some hope of future growth, particularly with their autonomous car program in shambles. They also benefit from future free advertising. Everytime you'll see a bit of news talking about autonomous drones, flying taxis, or the like, you can bet that the writer will mention Uber, thus giving them free Brand recognition. The same happened with Amazon's delivery drones, or…

I missread that as "self driving crabs" and now I want to see that. :-)

You jest, but cybernetic implants to remote control cockroaches and flying beetles is a thing, and even normal people can buy the former (RoboRoach Bundle is about US$160), so I wouldn’t be very surprised if someone makes a crab-based delivery cyborg.

Re: Uber’s Flying Taxi

#30

Post by stefanpl »

ben_w wrote: post #29
paulific wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I missread that as "self driving crabs" and now I want to see that. :-)

You jest, but cybernetic implants to remote control cockroaches and flying beetles is a thing, and even normal people can buy the former (RoboRoach Bundle is about US$160), so I wouldn’t be very surprised if someone makes a crab-based delivery cyborg.

Wow. That's actually mind blowing... I never would have thought that neural interfacing could be so cheap and affordable
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