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The End of Solotrek
bobetov writes "For those of us fed up with gravity and gridlock, the Solotrek XFV personal VTOL aircraft has been the real IT. A Segway is a nice scooter and all, but this thing can fly. But it all comes down to dollars in the end, and, with a recent test-flight accident and a missed milestone, Trek Aerospace is calling it quits."
The skycar is coming along nicely.
how the hell could you use this for defense?
Good for scouting or recon, or extremely rapid platoon movement. The Air Cavalry concept has proven effective, and this would give each soldier his or her own "horse".
Not saying it would work out, but I can see why DARPA would be interested.
The U.S. government has a yearly budget of one trillion dollars, and over forty percent of that goes to the millitary.
At least this could've been used by citizens.
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
If you're interested in other programs that the government is funding, check out this and that. You might get funding for your very own bullshit idea!
must... stay... awake...
The Solotrek was at best, an ill-conceived concept with many drawbacks and a long list of flaws that doomed it from the start.
Firstly, it offered few real benefits over earlier options such as the Hiller flying platform.
Most of us will have seen archive footage of these platforms that were so stable that a regular foot-soldier (or man in the street) could learn to fly one in just a few short minutes.
Hiller poured a lot of money into these devices in the 1950s but ultimately they were deemed to be impractical for numerous reasons -- most of which are shared by the SoloTrek.
Actually, the Hiller might even have been superior in a number of areas -- such as being far simpler in design and construction. Remember -- when you double the complexity of something you reduce its reliabilty by more than an equivalent amount. When my life is dependent on a piece of technology, I want that technology to be as simple and reliable as possible!
I plan to build my own flying platform when time/funds allow but have no illusions that it will be anything other than a curiosity. There are certainly no plans to turn it into the personal transporter of the 21st century.
Moller's Sky Car falls into the same category as the SoloTrek -- it's an overly complicated, hideously expensive and completely impractical device.
That the SoloTrek and Moller Skycar managed to get any external funding amazes me.
And, if you're interested in personal VTOL transport then check out this ambitious amateur jet-pack project which may be very ambitious, but is also astonishingly impressive in its engineering.
"Aren't something like 90% of the recorded aircraft fatalities a direct result of personally owned aircraft? " No.
"What benefit would a personal flying machine have?" I would have been far more difficult to get a liscence for this then a car. People would actually have to understand it, and prove they can opperate it in all contingencies before allowed to pilot one.
First off 5,000,000 isn't really that much for an R&D effort, espcially one that could of had this kind of payoff.
Second, this has a huge possible military benefit.
No not in combat, I mean logistic wise.
third, spin off from this could, in and of itself, had have a ice return(R&D wise).
Forth, it would have cost DARPA more to check out this possibility themselves, so it SAVED them money
Fifth, the govenment penny watchers are for more criticle about money, and understand the money side of risk analysis better then you ever will.
Sixth, The civillian use of this in a time of disaster would save many lives.
" Basically I see this as yet another clusterfuck of American tax dollars of entirely too well funded bureaucratic departments pissing money away."
I am sure many people would have said the same thing about the internet when it was being funded by the government.
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