Order of Kilopi
I know you've been promised a flying car since the first half of the 20th century. Maybe, at long last...
TimesOnline: The flying car
Nah. Sorry. It's just a lightweight car with a big fan on the back and a parafoil.A British engineer has invented a fan-powered flying car - and to prove the Skycar works, he’s off to Africa in it
Whoop-de-do.
Sorry. Your flying car a la Moller will be delayed a few more months...
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The real way to do "flying" cars will be by building very light enclosed vehicles that ride on small versions of the "monorail" concept (which I named "unirails", and their vehicles "unicars" and "unitrucks" and such, when I pondered making a website about the idea, as shown in the little illustration I'm including here). Being much less massive than roads, they could easily be mounted at various heights above ground far more easily than with conventional bridges, so it would be easy to have them enter and exit buildings at various levels, lead to rooftop parking lots, and be organized in multiple layers overlapping each other over a city. Organizing a bunch of truly flying vehicles would require restricting them to similarly arranged lanes in 3d space anyway, so this would give us all of the geometric advantages of flight without the risk and potential chaos of total 3d freedom or the energy expense of constantly fighting gravity. (I dumped the idea of a website about unirails because I don't believe a significant fraction of the populace would be willing to consider the idea right now, but I also consider its eventual development and construction to completely replace conventional flat roads pretty much inevitable in the long term... just too far off for most people to want to listen any time soon.)
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So...you mean to have a 'car rail' going to everyones driveway? Or are you talking about like communal cars, where you would just go to a station and get in the first available car? In that case, wouldn't it make more sense to just use trains since they can hold more passengers at once?
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Interesting concept. It might work if the vehicle could easily convert to a conventional mode to maneuver at low speeds off the monorail.Originally Posted by Delvo
Different category, an aircraft that is at least starting to look like a car:
http://www.urbanaero.com/Xhawk_main.htm
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what about the light saber; when do we get that?
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Hasn't that car been shown in Popular Science for about 40 years or so?
Still looks cool. Kind of like Luke Skywalkers speeder.
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ford's latest
http://a.media.abcfamily.go.com/abcf...Bang_large.jpg
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Already have them--guy in my astro club bought from Singapore I think he said? an illegal-in-the-US laser pointer, 50mw, that did a good job of slicing through my photography attempts. Hey, you trying to show the stars, or heat them up?
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Hmmm... I remeber seeing a concept somewere, but just can not recall where...The real way to do "flying" cars will be by building very light enclosed vehicles that ride on small versions of the "monorail" concept (which I named "unirails", and their vehicles "unicars" and "unitrucks" and such, when I pondered making a website about the idea, as shown in the little illustration I'm including here). Being much less massive than roads, they could easily be mounted at various heights above ground far more easily than with conventional bridges, so it would be easy to have them enter and exit buildings at various levels, lead to rooftop parking lots, and be organized in multiple layers overlapping each other over a city. Organizing a bunch of truly flying vehicles would require restricting them to similarly arranged lanes in 3d space anyway, so this would give us all of the geometric advantages of flight without the risk and potential chaos of total 3d freedom or the energy expense of constantly fighting gravity. (I dumped the idea of a website about unirails because I don't believe a significant fraction of the populace would be willing to consider the idea right now, but I also consider its eventual development and construction to completely replace conventional flat roads pretty much inevitable in the long term... just too far off for most people to want to listen any time soon.)
Anyway, the idea was, as far as I can recall, that you would have cars that could be used as normal cars, but could also be used on a rail system. The rail system would be used for longer distances and higher speeds than normal roads, you would have ramps leading onto it, and there would be an automated control system that would take over control, you just told it where you wanted to leave the track. The cars could be connected together almost like a normal train, to improve overall efficiency of the system. The computer would manage the placement and connection/disconnection of the cars, so when you came to a fork in the line, the train would automatically split into two smaller trains, or if someone reached their off ramp, it would reduce speed on part of the train, and split that car of, and later reassamble the remaining parts.
Due to the train approach in such a system the tendency of cars to collect into groups, something that is bad on a normal road, could actually be a good thing. Of course, the primary reason that cars collect into groups is human latency and flow control systems like traffic lights, something that would not be needed on a line like this, so the computer system would probably try to encurage the collection of cars by manipulating the speeds.
Order of Kilopi
as long as the monorail cars stay in Europe, Japan, and New York, i'm all for it.
us simple country folk prefer to be in control of our gas guzzling monstrosities because, you know, we're weird like that and don't see a car as merely a form of transportation.
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Better still--- a *real* flying car!
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DARPA just got funding to build a flying car for military use.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/1...-flying-c.html
Darpa hopes its "Personal Air Vehicle Technology" project, announced yesterday, will ultimately lead to a working prototype of a military-suitable flying car -- a two- or four-passenger vehicle that can "drive on roads" one minute and take off like a helicopter the next. The hybrid machine would be perfect for "urban scouting," casualty evacuation and commando-delivery missions, the agency believes.
Order of Kilopi
From one who both drives and flies....the hybrid is a bad airplane and even worse as a car. Still in dreamland. Small rotors and small turbines are notoriously inefficient, requiring precision tooling with state of the art metallurgy...not cheap. This is not a lawn mower, where you can ground effect a wheel-less housing and use it on steep slopes.
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The I,Robot movie?
The problem with communal cars is that people seem to treat anything they don't own as free. And "free" as "free to destroy".
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Haven't seen that movie, anyway, it was long before it came out.The I,Robot movie?
The cars do not have to be communal, it could be private cars built to be used on a standardized system.The problem with communal cars is that people seem to treat anything they don't own as free. And "free" as "free to destroy".
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The thought of the sky being full of low-flying powered light aircraft, driven by ordinary mugs, fills me with horror. I don't want elevated roads (Delvo's monorails) to be common either.
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The thought of everyday drivers having flying cars fills everyone with horror.
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Which gives me an idea for a science fiction story.
About drunk drivers in the future. In flying cars. Talking on cell phones. While doing their makeup. And watching the latest YouTube video.
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Niven's solution: flying cars have AI pilots, and turning the AI off over a city is a capital offense.
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I don't care if computerised flight control, automated collision avoidance, clear air turbulence detection, perfect weather forecasting, and lands-safely-following-malfunction systems make it possible for ordinary people to fly light aircraft reasonably safely in a crowded sky, I still don't want the audible and visual intrusion of the sky being full of low flying powered aircraft. All those cars are already too bad.
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Yeah, but the obvious problem with that is when somebody gets caught flying on manual, they have nothing to lose during the chase. So they could crash their flying car into a building during the chase. Which is yet another reason nobody is going to be allowed to have a flying car.
They can be easily used as weapons.
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Cars themselves are weapons. Flying cars doubly so. Really - the thought of a flying car fills me with the sense that we as a species are doomed.
Couple the vast populations' inability to drive (I say it this way because although many people drive and don't get in wrecks - most people are TERRIBLE at driving. Very very low on the skill-level) with most people's inability to maintain their cars properly and you have a future of things falling out of the air for one reason or the other.
Your car breaks down you pull over. Your flying-car breaks down you are SOL. Especially if you are over Nebraska.
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"the thought of a flying car fills me with the sense that we as a species are doomed."
wow--that is pretty extreme. With new technology there are always problems--nothing has doomed us yet, despite many, many predicting doom in the past.
I mean, those darn automobiles--they'd run over the horses!!!
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It often seems like the people making predictions do so more to impress and create fantastical visions than showing a realistic view of the future. And the flying car seems to be one. Such a vehicle would be dangerous, impractical and wasteful of energy, so would probably only be used for more specialised tasks.
We will probably see more personal aircraft being developed, but they will probably be optimized for just that, being aircrafts.
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Well back in the 1920 there was two winged airplane that was hooked with a free Helicopter rotating blade on top.
Top of the line at the time and can see it in old clips.
But I think it might take alot of more power even if jets were used for vertical takeoff. Except of a unmanned vehicle that uses jet power to get off a hundred feet straight up and then starts to cruise.
Not the hell missile launcher.
They are call cruise missiles propulsion, and none knows how one works as classified.
But not a VLO.
Invent a better one and get 1,000,000$ for just keeping your mouth shut from the DOD.
For just for a starter, 1/2 million every year after.
As patent quieting, no patent.
Caribbean island time with the family for 20 years.
And maybe buy a island.
A one man jet pack would be great but dangerous, so far as invented.
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According to the DC Air and Space Museum Herndon Annex, the Germans made personal helicopter backpacks during WWII. They had a very high failure rate--using one was kind of like playing Russian Roulette.
Now--what if we had the Starship Troopers suits...not the Halloween costumes in the movie, the ones in the book.
Established Member
Those would be autogyros. They are simply airplanes where the lift comes from a freely rotating wing. They need a runway, and you probably wouldn't want to use one with an assisted takeoff system...
Assisted take-off systems are hardly a big mystery, either they are some sort of catapult or linear motor, or they are jet or rockets strapped to the aircraft...
Hmmm... If I had an island, and all that money earned from unmanned weapons platform launch systems, I might want to invest in some anti air and point defences for my island, to prevent someone blowing up my house with some UAVs launced by my own system...Invent a better one and get 1,000,000$ for just keeping your mouth shut from the DOD.
For just for a starter, 1/2 million every year after.
As patent quieting, no patent.
Caribbean island time with the family for 20 years.
And maybe buy a island.
Jet packs are overrated, and would probably be more trouble than it would be worth.A one man jet pack would be great but dangerous, so far as invented
Order of Kilopi
Hi, I did a thread on a practical design for a flying "three wheeled car".
The engineering problems have been solved . The question remains....
" How much do you want one?"
"How much work do you want to do to make it affordable?"
" Who do you want to sue?"
Let's review a few facts.
Forget about vertical take off. We have airports to land and take off.
They work very well. And they provide the support structure for the safe fueling , storage , and security of the flying components required of such a
dedicated vehicle.
It remains obvious to the most casual observer that moller's toy is a
miscarriage of engineering. When you examine the practical considerations of flight worthy vehicles, you will recall that they have dedicated surfaces for lift
and empenage for flight control. Anyone who wants to fly based soley on the
wish that eight engines...."Count them...." has a poor concept in the very novel concept of safely returnng to earth without such luxuries. A well designed aircraft will continue to 'FLY' owing to those wings and empenage
which are included for just such reason. It has a "Glide Path" and a
"Glide Ratio" , which allows a Pilot to fly the plane to a landing, even without an engine.
I should offer anyone the view that a good flying car exists already in the form of the great Molt Taylor's "AEROCAR".
It was an elegant design in an age of financial recession. But the design
is elegant, durable, and it works well.
Listen folks, we don't land on highways unless we bloody well have to.
And if I can help it, I am not going to drag a lot of very expensive aircraft
hardware down the road so that some fool on a cell phone can hit it with their unpiloted car while they 'chat' with their friends and their car rolls along
on it's own.
If we want to make good, affordable flying cars, we will build them ourselves, with the help of education, oversight and good, simple, solid design. But in the light of manufacture's liability and hungry lawyers,
the concept faces it's greatest challenge. If the participants in such an enterprise waive their right to sue everyone for millions, then the future of general aviation may become brighter and within reach of many, in fact nearly anyone of reasonable health and proven responsibility and sufficient education may progress towards qualification as Pilot in command of an aircraft.
Like I said, the problems have been solved. George Jetson will be using an airport. His aircraft will use a landing strip, and not a road. And if he should lose power in flight, his flight navigational system will direct him to the best,
safe place to land within the paramaters of his situation . Altitude and airspeed have always been the pilot's friend. In recent times, we have developed a parachute which can land that vehicle safely as well.
Helicopters are creatures of an expensive,...very...very expensive environment, and incorporate many many many very expensive and perioically disposable parts, for which is required an expensive and qualified mechanic .
The ratio of flight time to shop time and the costs of parts and maintenance
are staggering to all but the government, and certain corporations who may perhaps 'right off' these costs.
But,....a good airplane in fair weather...now you're talking.
Best regards,
Dan
Last edited by danscope; 2008-Nov-20 at 03:56 AM. Reason: typo
Order of Kilopi
Lots of photos!1956 Aerocar N103D Flying Plane Car
Buy It Now price: $3,500,000
Auction end time: Dec-16-08 14:22:45 PST
Item location: Grand Junction, Colorado...
eBay
Order of Kilopi
Nothing that new to report...but...
Today's the day of the London to Timbuktu flight.
CNN says almost nothing about it in today's story.
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