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Personal Flying Machine Contest Gets 600 Entries (fastcompany.com)
"A giant egg equipped with rotors and 'Transformers'-style robots are among some of the creative designs submitted in a $2 million dollar contest to dream up new ways of flying," reports CNN.
"GoFly, a $2 million competition to design personal flying machines backed by Boeing, has announced its first round of most promising designs out of 600 entries from around the world," writes harrymcc . "Proposed vehicles need to fly for at least 20 miles, at 35 miles an hour; many of the ideas look a bit like airborne motorcycles." Fast Company reports: "There's been a convergence of all of these breakthrough technologies that makes this the first moment in time where we have the ability to make people fly," says Gwen Lighter, who dreamed up the GoFly prize, recruited Boeing to bankroll it, and now serves as CEO. Many of the advances come from the world of drones -- "high-efficiency motors, high-capacity batteries, and cheap navigation and stabilizing technologies that keep even newbies on course and out of danger....
Their prototypes have to achieve vertical takeoff and landing (called VTOL), eliminating the need for an airport runway... The craft have to be small enough to fit within an 8.5-foot circle, and they have to be safe and manageable for anyone to operate -- "not just engineers or daredevils... GoFly's Lighter emphasizes that safety is a key requirement in judging. She says that whatever wins will be well on the way to meeting requirements of the FAA -- and regulatory bodies in other countries -- for mainstream operation. FAA staffers (in a non-official capacity) are even among GoFly's expert advisors.
Best of all, every participant -- even those who win the prize money -- "are free to take their innovations anywhere. They retain all intellectual property rights."
"GoFly, a $2 million competition to design personal flying machines backed by Boeing, has announced its first round of most promising designs out of 600 entries from around the world," writes harrymcc . "Proposed vehicles need to fly for at least 20 miles, at 35 miles an hour; many of the ideas look a bit like airborne motorcycles." Fast Company reports: "There's been a convergence of all of these breakthrough technologies that makes this the first moment in time where we have the ability to make people fly," says Gwen Lighter, who dreamed up the GoFly prize, recruited Boeing to bankroll it, and now serves as CEO. Many of the advances come from the world of drones -- "high-efficiency motors, high-capacity batteries, and cheap navigation and stabilizing technologies that keep even newbies on course and out of danger....
Their prototypes have to achieve vertical takeoff and landing (called VTOL), eliminating the need for an airport runway... The craft have to be small enough to fit within an 8.5-foot circle, and they have to be safe and manageable for anyone to operate -- "not just engineers or daredevils... GoFly's Lighter emphasizes that safety is a key requirement in judging. She says that whatever wins will be well on the way to meeting requirements of the FAA -- and regulatory bodies in other countries -- for mainstream operation. FAA staffers (in a non-official capacity) are even among GoFly's expert advisors.
Best of all, every participant -- even those who win the prize money -- "are free to take their innovations anywhere. They retain all intellectual property rights."
Can anyone explain why I or anyone else should care about personal flying machines? How does this story affect anyone at all? I'll be censored to -1 without a doubt, but someone needs to ask the tough questions and inquire as to why this matters. Why would anyone need a personal flying machine? This effort would be far better invested into improving already proven technologies like electric cars. I'll be censored to -1, and that will stand as evidence that people would prefer to bury my question instead of answer it. It will show that I am right and that this story doesn't matter in the least.
Iâ(TM)ve never seen an 8.5 foot circular parking spot. If it canâ(TM)t fit in a parking spot itâ(TM)s not a flying car. How about a competition for that? It can be built with jet engines. It will be loud as F though.
Sorry Trump traitors!
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Look up ultralights. They are about as the same price as a small used car, and about as fuel efficient, but they need runways for takeoff and landing.
1) Computer controlled flight is a computationally simpler problem, than driving down a populated road. So, bigger delivery drones is an outcome.
2) The V-22 Osprey, while a real world, long range, VTOL aircraft, is expensive to maintain, and similar design, which requires less maintenance is desirable.
Doing some modifications to this device could be a funny way to join the challenge...
Typical Silicon Valley ignorance. All these concepts were invented in the 1950s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
It's from the 60-70s. The military wasn't interested because it's not really more useful(for them) than a chopper or light aircraft, outside of very specific scenarios. But it's not a new idea.
tells you that Boeing & Co are in the game - Personal Aircraft Game.
What they don't know is what competition they are up against ala Elon Musk and SpaceX. Not to repeat that faux pas
they're investing in a game. Show me yours first Game; its money well spent.
"this the first moment in time where we have the ability to make people fly". Really? Isn't Boeing already really good at that?
If this is strictly single person flight... jetpacks are a thing. Still not "first"
captcha: rephrase
From a typical US municipal code:
Parking Space Dimensions.
The minimum size of a standard parking space shall be nine feet wide and eighteen feet long. Parking spaces within enclosed garages shall have an interior dimension of at least ten feet wide and twenty feet long. The minimum size of a compact parking space shall be eight feet wide and sixteen feet long
Sizes vary a bit depending on land cost and typical vehicle sizes. In rural Texas, where land is cheap and large pickups are common, parking spaces are larger than in Tokyo, where land is more expensive and vehicles [and the people in them :) ] trend smaller.
Are any of these real engineered designs - where the main technical challenges of energy storage, power density, noise and safety have been addressed? Otherwise its just like then endless versions of the Moller "sky car", which is beautiful, but which I also remember from the late 80s, without any production models.
People have been talking about flying cars and have flown some test models since the 1930s. Useful "sky cars" in the form of helicopters have existed for well over half a century. What is missing is a solution to the difficult technical issues that make them impractical for mass use (beyond what we have now for helicopters). Pretty fiberglass shapes really doesn't address the basic issue.
In what world will a small helicopter be quiet?
Yeah, because that's what these are. They're small heli's.
The prop noise will be the exact opposite of quiet.
Plus there's the obscene amount of visual clutter that they will cause.
No you don't farking own the sky and you don't have the right to fill it with your toys.
What the fark happened to what we learned in the '60s (after the excesses of the late 40's and 50's)?
Humans need a world that still has some nature left unmolested. The sky is one of the few places that people can look at every day and not see a space over run with buildings and machinery.
I don't get it... this has already been done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The rules state a 30 ft circle take-off zone.
Some slacker kid with ancient blood line invents anti-gravity flying machine for world domination and profit. I call this the zuckerburg effect.
A paramotor is a 50lb backpack-seat arrangement hooked to a soft wing. Your takeoff and landing gear are your legs, climb and sink is controlled purely though the throttle and wing brakes, and turning is done with the wing brakes. You can achieve 35 mph airspeed easily and can go up to 10,000 feet no problem. Typical range is 2-4 hours depending on how much fuel you're willing to carry. Landing is done by cutting the engine and floating down to the ground. They're completely legal to operate, and you don't even need any certifications to fly one.
You're pretty exposed since there really isn't a fuselage, just a frame. Trike designs that incorporate wheels for takeoff/landing gear could be pretty easily given a shiny futuristic skin and submitted with almost no work.
What I'm getting at, is we already have personal flying machines, and this contest is idiotic.