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Arca Space Corp Unveils Functional Turbine Powered Hoverboard (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: If you're a fan of the Back to the Future series, the past few months have been fun to watch. We've seen Lexus unveil its take on the "hoverboard" with a maglev-based creation and today we're learning of yet another company that is revealing its spin on the hoverboard concept. Unfortunately, like some of the other hoverboards that we've seen in the past, this one looks a little like vaporware rather than something that will end up finding a market with consumers. The Arca Space Corporation ArcaBoard makes use of 36 ducted electric fans that work in tandem to provide 430 pounds of downward thrust, which should be enough to move just about anyone. The $19,900 ArcaBoard also has a built-in stabilizer which ensures that you won't be tossed of in an embarrassing fashion as you attempt to impress your friends. If you're feeling lucky, you can forgo the stabilization system and shift your weight around to steer the ArcaBoard in any direction.
Wouldn't downward thrust anchor you in place?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Goat
Ducted fans are not turbines. They are essentially shrouded propellers. These are electric, powered by batteries.
Lets see it go faster than a crawl. There is no way to push of and get back on the platform. No significant movement. No steering. This just proves that given enough power anything can get off the ground. It is far from doing anything useful let alone fun.
Because blowing dust in everyone's face from all that thrust will be sure to make you friends and look cool.
430lb downward thrust, no good for americans then...
Arca Space Corp Unveils Functional Turbine Powered Hoverboard
Maybe you should have looked up what a turbine is before using the word in your headline just because it sounds kinda cool and engineery.
As for "functional," well... that's in no way an understatement. Of any kind.
And the ad, jeez... you won't see anything this pretentious unless it's to sell perfume. "Freedom...!" Yeah, freedom to wobble about uncertainly on a massive slab ("not much bigger than a skateboard" - bollocks!) of plastic, continually staring down at your feet in sheer panic, from the looks of things.
It's probably deafening, as well.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
So are you going to have to register this as a drone? That's basically what it is, a tridecahexacopter, that you can stand on.
Chaos maximizes locally around me.
by Western Union. Hm. Now I wonder. Oh, well, Future, here I come!
The video is so overdone/overblown it is laughable. Too much drama, not enough function. $20K for 6 minutes of maybe 12MPH "flight" on something likely to be deafeningly loud. Since he wants to "create a product for the masses" I think he has to start with something else.
Oh, and there is no "turbine", just fans. At least it really is hovering.
Just curious.
As has been done with hundreds of middle school science projects, this can be done for $200.
Sheet of plywood, plastic sheeting, and a couple of leaf blowers.
272 horsepower is about 200kW. A 6 minutes fly is thus around 20kWh of stored energy. That's about 60kg and 25L of the best currently available lithium batteries (conservative estimation), which doesn't really look that much on the prototype of the video. So either the board is huge and impracticable (mind you, 6h of charge and carrying a 60kg thing for 6 minutes of flight), or it's complete bullshit.
My bet is on on the second option. There's only something like 5kWh of batteries, which makes a reasonable board size, but only maximum 1'30 of flight.
Video of some good progressive thrash music
How many idiots are there with $19,900 to blow on a gadget that they'll be bored with after the battery runs out the first time?
And more importantly, how does an idiot get $19,900 in the first place??
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
First, the original poster describes that aren't quite there.
- It's not a turbine. There are 36 ducted electric fans.
- It can lift 430lbs, but a large portion of that is batteries, followed by motors and the unit itself. Don't expect your fat cousin to soar to new heights
- Specifically the video only shows it hovering in ground effect (IGE). That means it BARELY makes enough thrust to lift the 180lb guy just high enough to hover. The restriction that "it can't hover over water" reinforces that it only hovers IGE..
- If you watch the video it's clear there is no effective stabilization.
The Arca thing has 272 horsepower. A Robinson R-44 helicopter has 225 horsepower at maximum takeoff power.
The Arca thing can lift 430lbs. The same Robinson helicopter can lift 2500lbs.
Yes, there's a huge difference between energy density and weight penalty of heavy electric batteries vs 100 octane low-lead aviation gasoline, but this just shows how absurd the concept that you need 272hp to achieve *only* 430lbs of lift, most of which is spent to lift the batteries and the enclosure.
Finally, to add insult to injury, most observers believe it to be vaporware:
http://www.engadget.com/2015/1...
http://uncovermichigan.com/con...
http://financialjuneteenth.com...
Happy holidays to all!
E
Sorry guys, you're not going to get your movie-style 'hoverboard' unless there is a dramatic discovery in the field of physics that enables us to create a gravitic polarizer, and if and when that happens a 'hoverboard' will be the least of it's uses, it'll revolutionize space travel and transportation in general. At the rate we're going we'll get gravity polarizers about the same time we get practical fusion power, though, so I wouldn't hold you breath. The Kzinti showing up in orbit demanding our surrender will probably happen sooner than inclusively both of those things happening.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Hey Arca, take a tip from the WalkCar. Kill the narration, pick a good tune, and show your product doing something that is actually interesting. (water? obstacles? steps? a hill even?)
1) Unless it pays premiums, it doesn't insure anything.
2) That should be "off", not "of".
3) Huh huh. Heh heh. Been there. Yeh.
Sober up and give it a rest till Monday already.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
What do you get out of this over the common wheel? What is the problem they are trying to solve?
For a bunch of fans and batteries they don't half talk a bunch of BS... "a revolution" and "so that you can achieve your dreams", i'm honestly not sure if this is form onion news or something from southpark.