[extropy-chat] AIRCAR: Boeing X-50 offers cheap alternative

Mike Lorrey mlorrey at yahoo.com
Sun Dec 7 05:14:38 UTC 2003


http://www.boeing.com/phantom/crw.html

I think that Boeing's Canard Rotor Wing test aircraft, the X-50
Dragonfly, promises personal air-car capabilities sooner than Moller or
Bell/Augusta. At the page above, note the photo in the lower left part
of the page. The X-50 just began flight tests today with a hover test
to 12 foot altitude. The X-50 is supposed to be capable of high
subsonic flight after transitioning from VTOL configuration. It
eliminates need for a tail rotor, as well as a transmission by venting
turbofan gasses through vents at the tips of the rotor when in VTOL
mode. The canard and tail surfaces generate lift as it picks up speed,
then thrust is directed through tailpipe and the rotor locks into place
as a standard airfoil. This processes reverses to land.

The weight savings and mechanical simplicity of this design concept are
what I think will make aircars a reality.

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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