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Flying Cars Hop Slightly Closer With FAA Weight Waiver
JimFive writes "For years we've been waiting for the flying car to arrive. The FAA has made an exemption that moves this one step closer to reality. Terrafugia has been granted a weight limit exemption for a 'Roadable Airplane.' Next up is passing the federal highway safety tests."
Which is still a big step towards flying cars.
What people really want is personal airplanes they can buy for cheap, land anywhere, and manually control, like on the Jetson's, but probably better looking. Would any of you truly feel safe with that kind of thing mass-produced and essentially replacing the automobile? Most people have problems with 2-D control, much less 3-D. Even with multiple levels of safety systems, and a computer programmed to somehow prevent people from doing stupid things, I still don't trust any of you to not fly into my house. Too much can go wrong with flying objects everywhere, especially in the hands of the plebs.
People have enough trouble using their turn signals, safe following distances and I don't know, general road rules? Adding a 3rd dimension and 200mph is asking for chaos. So what we're talking about is a aircraft that fits in a domestic garage and has road-legal extended taxiing ability. It's still a aircraft first. Thankfully.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
I was told we would have flying cars in the year 2000. Where are my flying cars damnit!
Well I drive an 11 kilo bicycle to work on highways. Maybe the real problem is with the Jeep Wrangler et al.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
you sir speak the truth, the problem isn't the bike/small car, but the guy on his phone in his 2.5 ton SUV, drinking his coffee. I vote the limit for a drivers license be 2000 LB, and that it must be a stick, unless you apply for an exemtion from the state for physical disability to drive a stick. You try driving a stick in rush hour while on the phone, eating a bagel, drinking coffee. Bet it sorts it's self out after a few weeks.
All of the above was encrypted with a Quad ROT-13 method. Unauthorized decryption is in violation of the DMCA.
But really not the point.
As a lot of people have pointed out, flying is harder than driving. A roadable airplane would appeal to an existing market of licensed pilots. The concept of a flying car is that you trade in the clapped out Taurus and take off in your new whirlygig from the dealer's parking lot and somehow make your way home without making an appearance on the nightly news -- assuming that such mayhem had not become too commonplace to make the news any more.
This project actually expands the potential market a bit, since they've managed to get it certified as a Light Sport Aircraft (LSA). You only need a Sport Pilot license to fly it, and you can get one more easily (and cheaply) than a Private Pilot license. There are restrictions (only one passenger, no night flying, and don't go near the major airports, for example -- and even with a Private Pilot license, the restrictions apply because it's an LSA) but it would be great for recreational use.
You'd still have to keep the old Taurus on the road, because you certainly wouldn't want someone rendering your $100K LSA un-airworthy while you left it in the supermarket parking lot.
"Roadable" means you don't have to leave it at the airport, and if you run into bad weather you can land and drive home, and if you fly down to the airport near the beach, you can drive the rest of the way -- if you think it's safe to park it off the airport.
Taking an airplane and making it roadable may not seem like much of an idea if you were thinking of the Jetsons, but if you're already a pilot, or are thinking about becoming one, it's a pretty neat idea.
The universe was intelligently designed. Unfortunately God was in a hurry so he coded it in Java.
The Terrafugia does save money on rental cars, but much more importantly, it makes it practical to use small airports where rental cars are difficult or impossible to obtain. On round trips with several days between the outbound and inbound legs, it is difficult or impossible to be sure that the weather will be aceptable for the return flight. With a roadable airplane, if the weather turns bad you just drive home instead of flying.
You're right, drivers aids in F1 were limited as to make driver participation a part of the sport. Drivers aids in current road automobiles are a reaction to the absolutely horrific driving skills of the average driver, or even worse, the aging driver.
Ocean is land, covered with water.
With you here. Most idiots can't control their clapped out Taurus's (or is that Tauri?) so how on earth will they manage flying? I see old farts pull out in carparks straight into each other all the time - even with just 30' of height that will be all over red rover! And don't start me on energy/benefit either. Do you really want to get to work quicker and pay more doing it? C'mon guys, we're /. nerds we can see past this one. Hey guys ....
Flying is easy if you're the only bird in the air.
Flocking is not easy. Thousands of flamingoes can fly together and land together without killing or maiming each other. I doubt that many humans can "flock" like that.
It's more like formation flying.
So, I'm fine with flying cars if they make the license requirements stringent enough:
Able to stick in formation and designated air-lanes even when:
1) The phone rings
2) Some kid puts his hands around your eyes.
3) Someone drops stuff in the car while you (and others in formation) are making a difficult maneuver
4) Suffering a sudden, significant but not totally incapacitating condition.
5) Sleepy or mentally operating at 80% of norm (and not fly if < 80%). Nobody is going to be at 100% all the time.
Many pilots have stayed with their plane risking (or even losing) their lives without ejecting because they know their plane would kill others if they ejected. That's the degree of professionalism and responsibility I'd want from someone whose allowed to fly a multi-ton vehicle above a densely populated city on a regular basis.
The average driver should not be allowed to fly anywhere close to a populated area.
So someone who has never piloted an aircraft before has a better chance of landing it than flying it level? Try again.
which is totally what she said
Cost of operation should be in the ballpark for a typical aircraft. Granted, that's a lot more than a car, but it's a non-issue here, since this isn't intended to be a car replacement. Despite hype in headlines, this is meant to be used as a roadable aircraft, not a flyable car. No one will be looking to buy one who wasn't already looking at buying an airplane, and will expect it to cost as much as it actually does to operate. They're competing with Cessna, not Toyota, and they have an advantage that will be worth a little extra dough for some people.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Incorrect:
On the ground, you have limited options to avoid random drivers. But you can STOP, in fact, everyone involved can. Try that in midair.
An airplane that can be driven would be great - if there were no other disadvantages. The problem is that aircraft are already such optimized designs that you take a big performance hit when you modify them for road use. You end up with something that is a mediocre airplane and a mediocre car. If you look at the specs, the "useful load" is 430 pounds. Useful load includes fuel (30 pounds an hour). This means you can barely carry 2 average sized adults. For such a low speed aircraft (100 Kts) it needs a lot of runway (1700' to 50' obstacle clearance). These are all worse performance numbers than an ancient Cessna 172.
Flying also isn't as simple as just driving onto the runway and taking off. Most pilots insist on doing a pre-flight inspection of the plane and some amount of flight planning. In principal you can get a sport pilot license in 20 hours, but in practice few pilots are comfortable doing cross country trips until they have > 100 hours.
Maintenance may also be an issue - do you need a certified mechanic to do anything to your car / plane? That would make its road use very expensive.