31–38 of 38 posts
The FAQ says "We are now only months away from first flight". Hmm... back in 2017, they were "hoping to make the first flight by the end of [that] year". https://robbreport.com/motors/aviation/samson-motorworks-swi... So how long has that FAQ entry been in place, I wonder?
Needs 4 wheels to be considered a car. Nice trike though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And a fourth: Ballistic cars
How bad of an idea would it be to bw catapulted to your destination?
Nets are important.
Flying cars are always poor cars and poor airplanes.
No.
Do I see a realistic need for a flying taxi?
No.
Are normal small existing planes to maintain quite expensive in Germany?
Yes.
Is it realistic that this financial overhead is feasible for all those people actually living under those airways which would make sense?
No.
Do we as a society and not super rich want that?
No.
Every flying car startup is a grift, I guarantee. There are two possibilities when it comes to making a flying car viable 1. Use fossil fuels even less efficiently because now not only does your vehicle have to move forward, it now has to keep itself in the sky. 2. Use electric motors which are already hard enough to sell in cars because they don't give as much range, and then put them in an application where, again,…
The fundamental problem is always weight, which is why making a vehicle that encloses the rider like a car can only be efficient if it's sufficiently large to amortize the costs. I think the solution is flying motorcycles, which already exist in the form of paramotors and gyrocopters. Then the problem is that you're so light that stability and safety in wind is a problem. Despite their availability, i havent heard of…
Well, now you have:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/paramotor-daredevil...
Article proves your point though. 10 miles in 30 minutes, required licensing, flight clearances, only works in very light wind, and requires total concentration the whole time. And then he carries the equipment once he lands in what must be a very heavy "briefcase."
Seems fun once or twice, but it swaps out the inconvenience of traffic with a ton of other inconveniences.
"Flying Car" drives me crazy. The requirements of flight and road travel are enormously exclusive. I'm super excited about the new possibilities personal, local flight enabled by all the developing tech like batteries, multi-rotors, controllers, peer-to-peer and ADS-B. That type of craft will go a long way to diminishing the needs for roads and parking lots.
Consider a lifting body like the Martin X-24A. It's a decent car shape that has been tested to 1036 MPH (1667 km/h, Mach 1.6). Add the engine and lift fan system used in the F-35B VTOL aircraft, and you have more than enough power for high-speed flight. You won't even need a runway.