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Volocopter 2x – Safer Alternative to a Personal Helicopter

volocopter.com

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Re: Volocopter 2x – Safer Alternative to a Personal Helicopter

#31

Post by ben_bai »

donquichotte wrote: post #27

What I would love on these kind of announcements is a short overview of the specs (just like they make them for cars and motorcycles!) - range [km] - battery capacity [kWh] - flight time [h] - maximum load [kg] - weight [kg] - price [€] - permissions needed to fly it ... Instead of a very strange and convoluted website with titles like "jump in and take off" (what else am I gonna do with a personal helicopter?) I wou…

range: ~30km

battery: ?

flight time: ~20min

max. load: 2 persons... 150kg?

weight: under 450kg fully loaded

price: ~300k EUR

permission needed: difficult... no airclass yet for those things except. "ultra light"

Those figures are from a presentation of the VC200 and might not be exactly right for the 2X.

Re: Volocopter 2x – Safer Alternative to a Personal Helicopter

#33

Post by FabHK »

qeternity wrote: post #17
friendzis wrote: post #16

Height control seems to be directly on the cyclic, without the combined height/throttle handle. I do not see yaw pedals, either. Controls of this aircraft seem to be different enough from conventional helicopter (that at least license hours were flown in) to be a serious disadvantage for potential buyers. Another consideration could be how this thing reacts to wind gusts and how different that handles compared to con…

It seems like a big motivation behind this is to appeal to non aviation folk and make it a mainstream offering.

Indeed, the volocopter breaks with traditional heli modus operandi, but that's a good thing. It is much simpler to operate, with one control stick:

* rotate to rotate the craft (replacing rudder)

* move forward/backwards/sideways to move (translate) the craft (replacing cyclic)

* operate simple switch on top to ascent/descent (replacing collective and throttle)

(Disclaimer: 1. As far as I know, 2. I have crowdfund-invested 1000 EUR in it, so im biased :-)

Re: Volocopter 2x – Safer Alternative to a Personal Helicopter

#34

Post by FabHK »

simonjgreen wrote: post #19
perilunar wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obvious design flaws: 1. it's really ugly 2. can't glide if the power fails

All helicopters have to be able to land after an engine failure to be certified. Google autorotor

This is not a helicopter. With the volocopter design, up to 4 of the 18 rotors can fail and you can still fly/control/land, and for contingencies there is a ballistic rescue chute.

Re: Volocopter 2x – Safer Alternative to a Personal Helicopter

#35

Post by Semiapies »

franciscop wrote: post #11
dmitrygr wrote: post #10

1. Helicopters (multi or single rotor) are significantly less fuel efficient than planes per distance and per time 2. Electric planes are just barely approaching the flying time that is anything beyond being a joke 3. These guys do not state their flying time My guess? It is so bad that it is not worth mentioning.

My guess is that this is intended to a completely different public than planes (short distances). Still looks like totally unrealistic for urban mobility IMO.

Maybe the idea is to make a low-cost alternative to expand the helicopter market.

Re: Volocopter 2x – Safer Alternative to a Personal Helicopter

#36

Post by ben_bai »

1ba9115454 wrote: post #15
dmitrygr wrote: post #10

1. Helicopters (multi or single rotor) are significantly less fuel efficient than planes per distance and per time 2. Electric planes are just barely approaching the flying time that is anything beyond being a joke 3. These guys do not state their flying time My guess? It is so bad that it is not worth mentioning.

For urban moblity, let's take a use case of flying someone from central london to heathrow airport i.e. 20miles or 30km. Assuming this thing could fly at 60km/h then a flight time of 30 minutes would be required. I'm not aware of any electric VTOL vehicle with this capability at the moment. But we live in hope.

The 2X predecessor is called VC200 and reaches 70km/h and had a flying time of around 20 minutes.

Re: Volocopter 2x – Safer Alternative to a Personal Helicopter

#37

Post by Semiapies »

perilunar wrote: post #4
beamatronic wrote: post #2

I've been following e-volo for several years. I think they have a winning design here, unless there is an obvious design flaw I am not seeing.

Obvious design flaws: 1. it's really ugly 2. can't glide if the power fails

Feh. I think it looks fine, especially in flight.

Power is the real issue.

Re: Volocopter 2x – Safer Alternative to a Personal Helicopter

#38

Post by FabHK »

fulafel wrote: post #5
perilunar wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obvious design flaws: 1. it's really ugly 2. can't glide if the power fails

Helicopter glide property is important because most are single engine. You could easily put several independent motor + battery partitions in this one.

Indeed. The 18 rotors in two concentric circles (6 in the inner, 2 x 6 in the outer) are each driven by an independent engine, and they're operated by many power trains that supply rotors on opposite sides. So, if a rotor fails (or actually up to 4), no prob, still controllable for expedient landing. If a power train fails, same.

Re: Volocopter 2x – Safer Alternative to a Personal Helicopter

#39

Post by ben_bai »

friendzis wrote: post #16

Height control seems to be directly on the cyclic, without the combined height/throttle handle. I do not see yaw pedals, either. Controls of this aircraft seem to be different enough from conventional helicopter (that at least license hours were flown in) to be a serious disadvantage for potential buyers. Another consideration could be how this thing reacts to wind gusts and how different that handles compared to con…

It's like a drone with GPS. It stays where it is unless you touch the joystick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OazFiIhwAEs

Re: Volocopter 2x – Safer Alternative to a Personal Helicopter

#40

Post by consp »

robochat42 wrote: post #25

Are multiple rotor blades more or less efficient than a single large rotor? Also, could a normal helicopter be adapted to use these control systems to make them easier to fly?

Don't know for sure, but considering you can run the blades at higher RPM due to the smaller radius vs approaching the speed of sound, it might be better. (also redundancy).
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