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New Flying Car Design Unveiled
An anonymous reader writes "Terrafugia has unveiled plans to build a semi-autonomous, hybrid-electric, vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle for personal aviation. The new design, called TF-X, is in the works even as the company's first product, Transition, is still awaiting production because of technical and regulatory hurdles. Terrafugia's founder says the goal of TF-X, if it can get past the safety issues in both aviation and automotive industries, is to 'open up personal aviation to all of humanity.' But it will have a lot of competition from companies including AgustaWestland, Pipistrel, and the stealthy Zee.Aero, all of which are working on vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles for consumers."
When I'm getting too old to safely drive one.
What happens when flying cars collide with buildings or other infrastructure?
when I fire up the gas turbine after using the undoubtedly noisy props to do a vertical take off. I'm sure I'd hate the noise too.
Enough with the "Fake" Flying Cars Already - I think everyone is getting tired of these 'flying car' stories, be they on /., Wired, PopSci or wherever.
A Flying Car uses some kind of anti-gravity device. It can float. Don't show me a hovercraft, helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft.
For greater clarity but so as not to limit the generality of the foregoing, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhF4gu87rn0
Most drivers don't seem to be able to handle safely navigating on surface roads.
I'm pretty sure the vast majority have no hope in hell of operating a flying car when they have up and down available to them.
And I can't see the FAA wanting to suddenly let a bunch of people start taking to the skies in something like this without a proper pilots license.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I've lost count of the number of "flying car" projects I've seen over the years. Several have been built, and flew fine, but none have ever been a commercial success. It's a solution to a problem that doesn't appear to exist.
Either flying cars will always require a traditional pilot's license. Or we will first need to master the art of self-driving cars and remove almost any possibility that a passenger or owner of a vehicle can control the fine traveling decisions of the craft; i.e. only decide the desitnation.
I actually prefer the latter.
We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
If this even comes to light (which I doubt it will) - the way these things go is as follows, based off recent history and similar products. It will not be a "flying car", but rather a "roadable helicopter". This means it will require a helicopter pilot's license. This won't be something you buy at you local dealership, get your license at a local DMV, and you and all your neighbors will be commuting to work in your flying cars. They will probably take-off and land at places helicopters are now permitted (airports), and serve as an alternative means of transport and storage before/after doing so.
Face it, most people have a hard enough time on a (relatively) 2 dimensional plane. Accidents all over the place. Now you have to worry about people coming from all 3 dimensions... forget about it.
Add to that, at least it is normally hard for someone to go through the side of a house unless the accident is really bad or they were driving really fast. Now anyone would be EASILY able to go through a roof.
And meantime, 50 years later, Moller is exactly NOWHERE.
The dude's concepts have been on the cover of Popular Mechanics since... what... 1972? And he has yet to even sell one flying car.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
It's one thing to get a driver/pilot to fly one of these well, it's another to get them to keep them in an air-worthy condition. Having worked at a service station and seen how people treat their cars, the thought of them flying overhead scares me. Flying cars do have a place; but it's with those who can afford the infrastructure to keep both them and the pilots in top condition- the military, emergency response, and professional car services.
Don't Panic.
Computer controlled (self driving) cars are easy by comparison
Not even close. Self-driving cars need to be a lot more intelligent than self driving "planes". Commercial airplanes have been self-driving for decades (as someone pointed out). A few things that self-driving "planes" will not have to deal with:
- Ad-hoc changes to roads due to, for example, a busted water main. Happens all the time. As a driver I know how to drive into the temporary "lane" on that field, a self-driving car will not have a clue.
- Pedestrians and others veering into the path of your car with a seconds notice.
- That creek that is over flowing and has taken the road with it.
Etc, and so forth. Once flying cars start taking off (pun intended) regulations will have them equipped with proximity sensors, pre-approved flight situations etc. It would, for example, be rather straightforward to divide air-space into sections (for example horizontally) in such a way that the vehicles are never on paths that are crossing. You turn the wheel north and the car automatically raises to a level where driving north is allowed.
Since the 3D space is rather more static and maneouverable than 2D space, this is a lot easier than self-driving cars (again, commercial jets have done this for decades, and when planes do collide it is "always" because of human error (wrong action taken at the wrong point in time) or a very old plane without modern electronics getting in the way of another.
The height from which a fall kills you is significantly lower than the minimum operating height of a parachute.
Just saying.
no taxation without representation!
We've been down this road/runway time and again and while it is possible, it's not going to be practical for a long time. From a licensed private pilot who also holds a class B CDL and could actually LEGALLY drive/fly this thing, here are the reasons why this ain't going to happen....
1. The Car/Plane will need to be certified by TWO authorities, the NHTSA and the FAA (in the USA).
2. It will have to meet the minimum crash standards of the NHTSA, the Emission standards for other vehicles including the OBDII and Cafe mileage standards, yet meet the FAA's technical standard for a commercially produced aircraft (assume you don't build these yourself..)
3. Designing for both authorities will make it a horrible car and a worse airplane. It won't be comfortable and it will be hugely expensive.
4. The driver/pilot will need to be licensed to drive as well as have a suitable pilot's license, ratings, medical certificate, log book endorsements, and be current for the type of flying to be done in order to take passengers. Flying is an expensive hobby and you have to fly regularly to be proficient and safe.
5. ALL maintenance will need to be done by properly certified (by the FAA) mechanics using fully vetted and certified parts, and you thought a brake job was expensive for your car, trust me, you haven't seen anything, and you simply won't be able to do ANY work yourself or buy tires from your local tire store because they won't be able to legally even loosen the lug nuts on your car/airplane thing.
6. Large Cities Usually sit under large areas of restricted airspace where flying these things would require a minimum set of navigational equipment, communications equipment and procedural methods to be followed. This is more than just going through the toll booth or HOV lanes. You will need to have a scheduled transit time and an approved filed flight plan in some cases and be talking to ATC in most cases.
7. VSTOL capable aircraft are usually not fuel efficient being heavy and complicated devices. They have limited useful load for the fuel they burn and suffer from being low range because you simply cannot lift fuel AND people, suitcases, groceries and the like. (The Harrier and V22 don't fix this issue..) You won't be go very far or fly very long.
8. Alcohol in motor fuels is going to be an issue for aircraft operating conditions.
It's simply not a practical idea. Sounds like it would be great, but it's just got some serious problems even before you get to thinking about the physics of the whole it's a car, it's a plane engineering problem.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Helicopter takeoff stress _is_ particularly high.
As the sib points out, replace wings with rotors. Rotors are wear items, same as props.
Also note: Tail boom and rotor has lots of potential to fail. Add swashplate and transmission fun.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'