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Flying Car More Economical Than SUV
fusion812 writes "The M400 needs 35 clear feet to take off but thanks to its 770 hp engine can whiz to 365 mph - cruise control kicks in at 326 mph - and climb at 6,400 feet per minute. You may hear it before you see it: it emits a rather noisy 65 dba at 500 feet. Interestingly, with a fuel consumption of 20 miles to the gallon on the road, it's rather more economical than a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) and looks positively eco-friendly compared to a Hummer."
But the cost of the flying car would be significantly more than an SUV.
What of the costs for learning how to drive/fly one of these things?
I'm not really looking forward to the time where people who run out of gas/petrol simply fall out of the sky to their deaths and those on the ground.
Would you let a cletus like character behind the wheel of one of these things?
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
20 (miles / US gallon) = 8.50287411 kilometers per liter
There is more than just the cost to an individuals pocket. There is also the environment to think about. I would never dream of buying a car that did 20 to the gallon. Seems like a lot needs to change before Americans start to think about the environment.
You are seriously right. I used to take flying lessons and when I was on my ride home from the airport I was really amazed how two dimensional driving is. It's actually kinda weird to lack a third dimension when you got used to it.
I can just see people trying to put in enough miles to make one of these things more "economical" than an SUV.
I was in an elevator a few weeks ago with the owner of a brand new Hummer. He was complaining about the fuel economy (I have no sympathy for him there). He said that there would be a diesel version in two years, and he was going to buy that one because he could save money on gas. It was incredibly difficult to not just start laughing at him.
Yeah tax the hell out of everything so no one does it. Great liberal thinking here. Did you ever stop and think that public transportation in America is much harder than it is in Europe or Japan? I mean, the state I live in in bigger than the UK. We have so much land to cover, that it is a much harder problem to solve. Same reason our cell phone technology lags behind the rest of the world.
Taxing gas sky high will do nothing except give the government more money to spend, and give the people less money. I mean, Christ, is 25% of your paycheck not enough for you? When I work for my money, I like to keep some of it.
If you had nuts on your chin, would they be chin nuts?
The FAA has proposed new rule for what will be called a Sport Pilots License. The rules should be approved this summer and it will make it much easier for anyone to become a pilot. For one, you won't have to take an expensive physical any longer.
However, there are a lot of restrictions on someone with an SPL. You can't fly an aircraft that has a gross takeoff weight higher than 1232lbs. You can only fly under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) conditions and you cannot fly any faster than 132MPH.
Because flight training takes place in the less expensive Light Sport Aircraft class (LSA) flight training should be less expensive. Also, a prospective SPL student only needs to fly 20 hours to get their license. Normally, you have to fly at least 40 hours.
Personally, I can't wait.
If you want to learn more about it, goto www.sportpilot.org
There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.
Was it even the "late" 80s?
Anyway, you're right: he's been saying the same exact thing for decades now. It's complete vapor. Moller is either a crank or an investment scammer.
The Moller Skycar will enter mass production around the same time that the Infinium Phantom does, I guarantee it.
I hope you realize that the average person with slight technical skills can build an airplane if they are willing to follow instructions carefully, and for less than the price of a new car? Hell, I have a web bookmark to a book someplace that tells you how to make your own hand-laid carbon fiber aircraft. Now be realistic, if you can make your own aircraft for less than the cost of your explosives (if you're using anything interesting) what the hell would keeping complete-build units expensive accomplish? At least those can be licensed and tracked. A homebuilt, which will probably be vastly cheaper due to a (relative) lack of liability issues, will still be a better option. Furthermore, it is entirely possible to steal a plane, as people all over the USA own aircraft and live near small airstrips.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Mileage and Emissions arn't connected completely except for CO2 which isn't currenlty a concern. Getting the highest mileage and getting the lowest emissions as the same time isn't possible. To run an engine at it's most efficient points has trade offs in emissions.
At any rate this is dumb. Since for one most SUVs do better then 20mpg (not all SUVs are huge things, most are small and do no worse then a bigger car, or a high end car).
Also, across the board this thing would get piss poor mileage, how often are you going to be going very fast, most the time you would eb going slow, or doing take offs, you mileage will be poor. Everyone knows planes crusing get good mileage, so what is the big surprise there. Also it's powered using a wankel engine, those engines even as improved as they have got still have worse emissions when gasoline powered then your typical piston engine.