Will "Flying Cars" be in the not too distant future? (military)
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My degree is in aero engineering. One of the great challenges in aircraft design is to make it light enough to allow a good useful load, while making it strong enough to endure the rigors of flight. Some aircraft are purposefully built with exceptional design strength (F-16, F-22, A-10, et al) and some are a lot more "flimsy", such as transport or GA aircraft. Nonetheless they are designed to certain load factors... 3.8 Gs for Normal Category GA with an ultimate load of 5.1 Gs, for example.
That goes out the window with automotive design; bumpers, occupant protection, crumple zones, road tires and wheels, transmissions and differentials, they all take up space and add weight. To make a flying car safe on the streets and meet NHTSA-issued Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) would add so much weight the useful load would be hardly anything. Back when the flying car was a cover story on an issue of Popular Mechanics, the FMVSS were a lot less restrictive.
It's neat, and it would be fun to design and build one. But like the AmphiCar, an impractical "toy" that would appeal to only a few über-wealthy fliers. Who could afford a real sports car and a real airplane, and drive one to the airport to fly the other.
Probably most readers here wouldn't dare drive their cars over a bridge built only to the structural safety standards of an airplane.
The promise of flying cars for all has been "coming soon" since 1946.
Probably, personal airborne vehicles (PAV's) will be electric quadcopters similar to retail hobbyist drones. It's the only proven design for urban environment VTOL.
They'll be computer controlled. You'll climb in, authenticate with 2-factor password and biometric, verify that it's got the latest security patches (to prevent Russian hackers extorting money while you're airborne), tell it your destination.
The device will run a complete set of diagnostics.
The FAA urban aircraft traffic control will send a go/no-go response, and then, if all is well, you can be on your way.
Eventually it will be as routine as hopping on a bus.
But like the AmphiCar, an impractical "toy" that would appeal to only a few über-wealthy fliers. Who could afford a real sports car and a real airplane, and drive one to the airport to fly the other.
Amphibious vehicles are a good comparison - they all pretty much make for bad boats or bad cars or both. And aircraft are harder to make than boats.
Probably, personal airborne vehicles (PAV's) will be electric quadcopters similar to retail hobbyist drones. It's the only proven design for urban environment VTOL.
They'll be computer controlled. You'll climb in, authenticate with 2-factor password and biometric, verify that it's got the latest security patches (to prevent Russian hackers extorting money while you're airborne), tell it your destination.
The device will run a complete set of diagnostics.
The FAA urban aircraft traffic control will send a go/no-go response, and then, if all is well, you can be on your way.
Eventually it will be as routine as hopping on a bus.
I'm willing to be proven wrong, but... Man-capable rotorcraft are noisy, and they require a fairly well-kept area to land in. If you kick up gravel hundreds of feet in every direction, you'll not be a popular guy. You have to move a lot of air, fast, to take off and land with a human as payload. And you'll leave dirty, roiled air for the next craft coming in.
People have enough trouble with two dimensions in my experience.
Coffee snort!!
I think you fly, Dane? I used to in my 20s and 30s and can't imagine doing it now. I remember it like it was another life.
No way can the average driver be a safe pilot. Texting and flying---right.
I think it also might be a bit like video phones. Though it's easy enough, I don't see that many video phone calls taking place. People prefer other methods, it seems. Despite what people thought the future would be.
Sadly no - tried out hang-gliders in my youth, dropped them on basis of the entire "I would like to get old one day" rationale. Deeply interested in aviation, but not at the controls.
We've been dreaming of flying cars for decades, but until now, we've lacked one critical component: Computers robust enough to provide takeoff-to-landing autopilot.
Just as cars are inching towards full autonomous driving, planes are inching towards full autonomous flying. When that happens, the only remaining hurdles will be in the transaction aspects - car to plane and back to car.
I think we may see this - perhaps only occasionally, like Segways - in the next 10 years.
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