Uber Flying Cars: or pie in the sky dreaming?
It's funny to me, the old curmudgeon, when I see these newfangled "flying taxis," or "pilot-less drone taxis" that are supposed to be the wave of the future. What's funny are all those multiple exposed propellers just above head-height: What regulatory agency is going to allow that? And yeah, I know they only run those props after the pax have boarded but they're still going to be operating in inner cities...supposedly.
The second thing that really makes me laugh are the depictions of the actual cabins: Flimsy, carbon-fibre shells like something you'd see on an amusement park ride. And the illustrations are always of shirt-sleeve weather. What about really hot climates? Or really cold? Or really rainy days? Will there be enough battery power to provide a decent air-conditioner or heater? Passengers WILL NOT put up with cold or hot or uncomfortable transportation devices. Ask any current (ground-bound) Uber driver.
Finally, as with any vertical flight vehicle used in an urban environment, I always say: "Don't forget the downwash!" Because there WILL be downwash. It will not be negligible or insignificant. The very idea of dropping down into the front plaza of an office building (where the fountain used to be perhaps, or the benches where the office workers from the bulding are having lunch?) is just silly. And if you can't take these things from point to point, what's the use? Might as well catch a real Uber. I mean, look at how ride-shares have reduced congestion in major cities so far!
I just don't see these things happening - not even in my wildest dreams. But hey, I've been wrong before...
The second thing that really makes me laugh are the depictions of the actual cabins: Flimsy, carbon-fibre shells like something you'd see on an amusement park ride. And the illustrations are always of shirt-sleeve weather. What about really hot climates? Or really cold? Or really rainy days? Will there be enough battery power to provide a decent air-conditioner or heater? Passengers WILL NOT put up with cold or hot or uncomfortable transportation devices. Ask any current (ground-bound) Uber driver.
Finally, as with any vertical flight vehicle used in an urban environment, I always say: "Don't forget the downwash!" Because there WILL be downwash. It will not be negligible or insignificant. The very idea of dropping down into the front plaza of an office building (where the fountain used to be perhaps, or the benches where the office workers from the bulding are having lunch?) is just silly. And if you can't take these things from point to point, what's the use? Might as well catch a real Uber. I mean, look at how ride-shares have reduced congestion in major cities so far!
I just don't see these things happening - not even in my wildest dreams. But hey, I've been wrong before...
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I struggle as much as the anyone with imagining the leap required for these urban mobility concepts. I can say that industry in the US and NASA have committed significant resources to solve the challenge. One step forward was taken two weeks ago when the FAA accepted (not approved) the certificate application for SureFly, a first of its kind aerial vehicle with potential urban mobility applications. Another challenge is the below 1000ft AGL altitude Class B/C/D/E and Class G airspace world will need a new paradigm for rule making and its own ANSP (air navigation services provider) to address separation and flow control.
SureFly | Workhorse
SureFly | Workhorse
It's a catch 22 scenario.
Without question low level urban air transport is coming. Small pods carrying up to 6+ people autonomously is coming.
The problem is - if these craft are mass produced and the price tumbles, bringing it into the reach of thousands, it will be an ATC nightmare.
Without question low level urban air transport is coming. Small pods carrying up to 6+ people autonomously is coming.
The problem is - if these craft are mass produced and the price tumbles, bringing it into the reach of thousands, it will be an ATC nightmare.
Small pods carrying up to 6+ people autonomously is coming.
Coming? The only "coming" is by the people designing these toys on their computers, who regularly need to have their keyboards cleaned up.
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Purpose built vehicles, economies of scale, gov-industrial complex support, and Wall St buy-in are a few that come to mind. Not to say that the SureFly is inspiring to look at, but priced less than an R22 with no single point of failure design and a ballistic recovery chute? Game-changer if it can get certified.
I wonder why ATC even has to worry about them at all.
they'll be granted a specific airspace created just for them, and their awesome autonomous capabilities will mean that no one needs to track them or talk to them. Right? They're going to be opposing magnetic poles and never hit anything ever.
I figure though, they'll be falling from the sky like seagull turds at the beach.
Wont be safe in the air, wont be safe on the ground. I'm taking the subway......
they'll be granted a specific airspace created just for them, and their awesome autonomous capabilities will mean that no one needs to track them or talk to them. Right? They're going to be opposing magnetic poles and never hit anything ever.
I figure though, they'll be falling from the sky like seagull turds at the beach.
Wont be safe in the air, wont be safe on the ground. I'm taking the subway......
Purpose built vehicles, economies of scale, gov-industrial complex support, and Wall St buy-in are a few that come to mind. Not to say that the SureFly is inspiring to look at, but priced less than an R22 with no single point of failure design and a ballistic recovery chute? Game-changer if it can get certified.
The vehicle will require testing to ensure that it can still carry out its job of lifting 6 pax, even if a percentage of its motors are inoperable. On takeoff, if it suffers more than a critical number of motor failures, at what altitude can it fire the ballistic parachute, and will the load then drift off a building top to crash into the street hundreds of feet below? Not to mention that it doesn't have a heroic pilot to steer it away from the school filled with terrified kids. Crashworthiness. Battery safety. Air con. Some way of ensuring the passengers aren't goofing off without seat belts, trying to tip it past its CG, all leaning to one side to see the Grand Canyon or Golden Gate.
These tests will cost stultifying amounts of money, which then has to be recovered by the cost of the craft, which is passed on to the travelling public. Cheaper than an R22? Fuggeddabahdit.
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Here is a reality check!
OSL, Oslo main airport has to close one RWY for half an hr last week , then both for another half an hr. This caused diversions and delay.
The reason was realestate agents using remote-controlled toys under the ILS.
Parliament is to close the airspace for the nummnuts with a quick new law.
Also ask USAF et al how remote controlled and autonomous aircraft and toys fare in the say 2017 with a ZERO loss of airlines vs their statistics.
Lock at all the fantastic planes that has graced the sky.
It has to be 1 Practical 2 Economical 3 Safe
Ahhhh, Here is an idea : SUPERSONIC pax transport.
I rest my case. at cost index 6 and a piddly M 0,75.
I am outahere!
Taxi,,,,, Taxi,,, TAXI
Uber,,,,,,,,,,
OSL, Oslo main airport has to close one RWY for half an hr last week , then both for another half an hr. This caused diversions and delay.
The reason was realestate agents using remote-controlled toys under the ILS.
Parliament is to close the airspace for the nummnuts with a quick new law.
Also ask USAF et al how remote controlled and autonomous aircraft and toys fare in the say 2017 with a ZERO loss of airlines vs their statistics.
Lock at all the fantastic planes that has graced the sky.
It has to be 1 Practical 2 Economical 3 Safe
Ahhhh, Here is an idea : SUPERSONIC pax transport.
I rest my case. at cost index 6 and a piddly M 0,75.
I am outahere!
Taxi,,,,, Taxi,,, TAXI
Uber,,,,,,,,,,
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I have struggled to discover what is the enabler of this concept, and why it is suddenly valid.
The only thing I can come up with is that electric motor power of multiple fixed pitch rotors has been enabled by much better gps, accelerometer, gyro, and control technology, and this in turn creates a cheaper machine with less failure modes, more opportunity for redundancy, and more opportunity for autonomous control.
Unfortunately, as evolution (and the B52) prove, we're not going to come up with a better way of accelerating air. It needs a crapload of hp. Mr Bernoulli and his friend Mr Einstien are not to be denied. Batteries are not good for a crapload of hp.
So the enabler of the air taxi is electric power. But without a battery (or other e power source) breakthrough the air taxi is stillborn. Even with a power breakthrough, its still a long long long way off due to all the other boring, (but very valid) reasons quoted in other posts. When a Tesla can go 1000 miles on a charge and be recharged in five minutes, we should start fearfully looking to the skies for some air taxis. And until then all these guys spending a ton of money proving you can scale up a quadcopter control system to people sized are wasting their time.
The only thing I can come up with is that electric motor power of multiple fixed pitch rotors has been enabled by much better gps, accelerometer, gyro, and control technology, and this in turn creates a cheaper machine with less failure modes, more opportunity for redundancy, and more opportunity for autonomous control.
Unfortunately, as evolution (and the B52) prove, we're not going to come up with a better way of accelerating air. It needs a crapload of hp. Mr Bernoulli and his friend Mr Einstien are not to be denied. Batteries are not good for a crapload of hp.
So the enabler of the air taxi is electric power. But without a battery (or other e power source) breakthrough the air taxi is stillborn. Even with a power breakthrough, its still a long long long way off due to all the other boring, (but very valid) reasons quoted in other posts. When a Tesla can go 1000 miles on a charge and be recharged in five minutes, we should start fearfully looking to the skies for some air taxis. And until then all these guys spending a ton of money proving you can scale up a quadcopter control system to people sized are wasting their time.
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I can't help but notice that there is often an uncanny correlation when something or some policy is self proclaimed blatantly as "Sure , True , Fair, Simple or Original, World Famous" usually the exact opposite is closer to the truth.
SureFly, Uber air taxi?
You never know ; the electric light bulb, indoor plumbing(my favourite), reliable turbine engines, the sound barrier ,the moon. Etc.etc would of been considered impossible heresy not so long ago. I d be fist pumping the air in victory too if I had managed to violate grandfathered approaches to vertical lift, a sketchy hover is a hover none the less. Disc loading, yeah somewhere s between the v22 and a harrier jump jet should be about right for a power/endurance hobbled machine. Ground effect, what's a 10% loss when the cowlings are plastic look alike carbon fibre......sorry, starting to harmonize with the choir here.
Should they pull the rabbit out of the hat and drones and robo,digi copters are planned to fill the skies like layered circuit board traces, I like Gray Horizons idea , take the subway. NO not to work. We are obsolete and unemployed now, time to cut loose. Drone struck visors down, unshaven and unhinged , day drinking in the stairwells to the rhythm of arc flash collisions in the sky.
Enough dystopia though, because if the future isn't robo-digi copters it's surely Robbo copters. Despite " only a mother or ab initio could love" being at the forefront of most minds. IT does bear some similarities to other evolutionary masterpieces the crow, magpie, seagull, cockaroach. All wretched in a way but mostly evolutionary brilliant.
A twin Robbo with radical plastic cowlings should be a worthy successor to the current king of accessible vertical lift. As good as it gets or what?
