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Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
How long have people been saying that?
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
Pokey!
There's flying snakes, ya know
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
Quote:
Originally Posted by
slowpoke
How long have people been saying that?
This company has a working prototype.
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
Many companies have built working prototypes. Some of the real roadblocks are that the operator needs both a driver's license and a pilot's license, and the initial cost and maintenance costs are very high.
All such designs are compromises: they are neither good airplanes not good cars.
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen!!! I would love to own one.
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Originally Posted by
AmericanFlyer
Many companies have built working prototypes. Some of the real roadblocks are that the operator needs both a driver's license and a pilot's license, and the initial cost and maintenance costs are very high.
All such designs are compromises: they are neither good airplanes not good cars.
Not one that can take-off and land vertically. Did you see the video?
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Originally Posted by
Elektra Luxx
That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen!!! I would love to own one.
Me too!
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
I hope not. The last thing we need is giving people an extra dimension to fuck up in.
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Originally Posted by
eagle2
Has anyone watched the video, or read the promotional material, or other news from Google links ? The impression I get from doing the above is this is some group of engineers/RC Drone enthusiasts circle jerk wet dream. A few other things........
1) For starters, Lilium Jet is not a flying car, it is an aircraft. Or to put it more accurately, a ducted fan, vectored thrust aircraft.
2) Did anyone else notice that there was no pilot aboard for first flight ? "Pilot" remotely operated craft from a control panel. Says a lot for faith in product for not putting a person on first flight. Virtually every aircraft I've read about says something like "Aircraft X made its first flight on...... with test pilot Steve Canyon, flying for XX minutes."
3) Sorry to rain on your parade Elektra, but company objective is to ultimately sell a 5 seat version to air taxi operators, operating to and from special built landing areas.. So much for parking in the mall by Neiman- Marcus.
An article does mention that the 2 seater (version that made 1st flight by remote control) will be sold to pilots for a yet unspecified amount. Oh........ wonder how much that might be ? Article goes on to say that LJ will be easy to fly, just operate stick and throttle, and computer will do it for you. (Tilt the array of 36 vectored fan in the right direction.) What if the computer has malfunction, what alternative would pilot have ? Loss of electrical power ? Craft looks to me like it would have the glide capability of a safe box full of Melonies' (wonder what she's up to now) gold bars. Having a 5-20 pound drone crash is one thing, a 1320 pound aircraft crash with people on board is quite another. (Company test flew several light drones prior to LJ's 1st flight.) This and other questions must be addressed prior to concept becoming reality.
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
Didn't we have water cars awhile back?
There was a better name
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
Amphibious vehicles? There are still some available. There's actually a manufacturer call "WaterCar" that builds amphibious jeeps.
https://www.watercar.com/index.php
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Originally Posted by
minnow
Has anyone watched the video, or read the promotional material, or other news from Google links ? The impression I get from doing the above is this is some group of engineers/RC Drone enthusiasts circle jerk wet dream. A few other things........
1) For starters, Lilium Jet is not a flying car, it is an aircraft. Or to put it more accurately, a ducted fan, vectored thrust aircraft.
Any flying car with the performance capability of an airplane or helicopter would be considered an aircraft.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
minnow
2) Did anyone else notice that there was no pilot aboard for first flight ? "Pilot" remotely operated craft from a control panel. Says a lot for faith in product for not putting a person on first flight. Virtually every aircraft I've read about says something like "Aircraft X made its first flight on...... with test pilot Steve Canyon, flying for XX minutes."
The first flights into space were made by unmanned aircraft. Less than 15 years after sending the first unmanned vehicle into space, we were sending men to the moon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
minnow
3) Sorry to rain on your parade Elektra, but company objective is to ultimately sell a 5 seat version to air taxi operators, operating to and from special built landing areas.. So much for parking in the mall by Neiman- Marcus.
They just came out with the first prototype. They're not going start selling millions of vehicles overnight, but over time technology advances and becomes cheaper.
Here's the Wright Brothers first successful airplane from 1903:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/docro...ws/0/image.jpg
Here's a DC3 which was flying just 33 years later:
https://images5.alphacoders.com/444/444528.jpg
If you told a 20 or 25 year old in the 1890's, that within his or her lifetime he or she would be able to drive their own gasoline-powered horseless carriage to the local store to go shopping, and they would be able to fly across the country in less than a day in a flying machine, most people would say that would be impossible.
I would bet that within Elektra's lifetime, she will be travel from her house to Neuman-Marcus in some type of flying vehicle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
minnow
An article does mention that the 2 seater (version that made 1st flight by remote control) will be sold to pilots for a yet unspecified amount. Oh........ wonder how much that might be ? Article goes on to say that LJ will be easy to fly, just operate stick and throttle, and computer will do it for you. (Tilt the array of 36 vectored fan in the right direction.) What if the computer has malfunction, what alternative would pilot have ? Loss of electrical power ? Craft looks to me like it would have the glide capability of a safe box full of Melonies' (wonder what she's up to now) gold bars. Having a 5-20 pound drone crash is one thing, a 1320 pound aircraft crash with people on board is quite another. (Company test flew several light drones prior to LJ's 1st flight.) This and other questions must be addressed prior to concept becoming reality.
The same logic applies to helicopters, yet they're widely used. It is also possible to add a parachute to the flying car or aircraft if there are any malfunctions. There are some light aircraft that have parachutes for backup.
http://www.aerospace-technology.com/...mages/img1.jpg
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
Don't know what that thing is...it's not a car.
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Originally Posted by
Trem
I hope not. The last thing we need is giving people an extra dimension to fuck up in.
So true. Dumbasses causing DUI's in the sky. But can't let the small percentage of drunks fuck it up for everyone else.
Plus they already fucking up in the air - commercial pilots have been known to be getting sloshed before/during their shifts - I guess that's what they use autopilot for
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Originally Posted by
whirlerz
Didn't we have water cars awhile back?
There was a better name
http://www.wonderslist.com/top-10-in...phibious-cars/
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Originally Posted by
eagle2
Not one that can take-off and land vertically. Did you see the video?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_M400_Skycar
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Originally Posted by
AmericanFlyer
From the article:
As of 2016, no Moller air vehicle has successfully flown in free, non-tethered flight.
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
RE: Post #13- Eagle, thanks for the refresher course on aviation history. I'll try to reciprocate with one of my own.
But first, let's clear the air about the misleading title of the thread. In brief "Flying cars....reality...not too distant future."
Just because something can take off and land from places that a conventional airplane can't does not make it a "flying car." I see very little, if anything, that suggests Lilium Jet having any utility as a car, or road operated vehicle. Lilium Jet is an experimental, Powered Lift Aircraft.
Moving on to end of title: Those were some nice pictures in your post. (Btw, that was not the airplane pictured that the Wright Brothers first flew, but an unpowered glider that they flew several times prior to historic 1903 flight). Did you know that first VTOL aircraft flew not quite 4 years (Sept. 1907, Breguet Gyroplane) after the Wright Brothers first powered airplane? Yet it took over 40 years after that before helicopters became operational in a meaningful way. (Korean War)
Maybe not the first, but the Bell X14 was a precursor to the Harrier that many of us have seen at airshows. It made its first flight (VTOL only) in 1957, with transition to horizontal flight in 1958. Like the Harrier and the Lilium Jet, X14 was a Powered Lift Aircraft. Thrust vectoring was provided by 2 jet engines, centrally mounted. Unlike Lilium Jet (which is entirely dependent on operating engine and propulsion devices for continued flight and directional control) X14 actually utilized wings from a Beech Bonanza that could produce aerodynamic lift. The Lilium Jets aerodynamic lifting capability is virtually nil.
My point on this time line is that VTOL in general, and powered lift aircraft in particular have been around for quite some time, yet it hasn't gained the scope of universal acceptance that conventional airplanes have. I'll get into some reasons, plus an issue you touched on in a later post, I need to be running soon.
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Originally Posted by
minnow
Moving on to end of title: Those were some nice pictures in your post. (Btw, that was not the airplane pictured that the Wright Brothers first flew, but an unpowered glider that they flew several times prior to historic 1903 flight).
That's what came up in my Google image search. Good catch. I replaced the photo.
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
Here's a more basic one that is being partially financed by Google co-founder Larry Page:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYBZxEvd9Lo
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Re: Flying cars might become a reality in the not too distant future
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Originally Posted by
eagle2
Wicked Cool!!!