[ExI] flying cars?

The Avantguardian avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com
Fri Jun 24 21:00:27 UTC 2011



----- Original Message ----
> From: spike <spike66 at att.net>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Sent: Fri, June 24, 2011 7:31:02 AM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] flying cars?
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Keith Henson
> Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 8:57 PM
> To: ExI chat list
> Subject: [ExI] flying cars?
> 
> >...It looks like the people who dismissed flying cars in the last few years
> might have been a bit hasty.
> 
> > An Entirely New Class of Aircraft Arrives
> ...
> 
> >.Discuss this story at:
> 
> http://www.gizmag.com/hoverbike/18813/
> 
> 
> Hi Keith, this is cool, but the reason I am not running out to buy stock in
> this is that I am pretty sure there are some important overstatements in the
> article.  What he has there I think is actually strictly a hovercraft.  I
> will predict that every photo you can find of this machine and every video
> will have it in ground effect.  We know a hovercraft like that is possible,
> but to take that machine out of ground effect likely to be fatal.  Reason:
> without variable pitch, there is insufficient control authority to keep it
> flying in that configuration out of ground effect.  The center of gravity
> and the center of lift are very close together.
> 
> Regarding the comment about adding control moment gyros for stability, those
> are heavy.  Another approach might be to lower the GC sufficiently by
> carrying weight on telescoping rigid rods hanging below the craft, perhaps
> containing fuel.  It will need plenty of that.  Alternately, suspending the
> ducted fans above the rider.  A San Jose company has been working on that
> approach for some time, using fans a lot like these.
> 
> I do not wish to be a nay saying nabob of negativism however.  Something
> like this has a terrific application: racing.  I can imagine running a 400
> meter oval around cones over a frozen lake bed.  That would be a really fun
> sport to watch and would call on a collection of skills not yet invented. 

Not the hover bike, Spike, although that is cool too. Look at the D-Dalus UAV. 
The pictures are crappy but it looks like it uses a bunch of turbines that 
operate like centrifugal fans instead of propellors.

 http://www.gizmag.com/d-dalus-uav-design/18972/

Stuart LaForge 


"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things bought 
and sold are legislators." - P. J. O'Rourke 





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