The Free Talk Live BBS
Free Talk Live => General => Topic started by: JYOOP on December 06, 2007, 08:51:54 PM
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsFfBB2W7IA
-
Nothing.
-
A hundred grand.
-
money....
-
Wow...that guy's worse than Eric. :lol:
-
The ter'rists will have them!!!
-
The appropriate market driven price. $100,000 dollars
-
The appropriate market driven price. $100,000 dollars
But whut about the ter'rists!!!?
-
nothing
-
zilch
-
the Helicycle (http://www.helicycle.com) is only $38 grand.
-
Nothing. I'm nervous enough already!
-
zilch
okay; i have to ask...why, oh why, would you not want a flying car?
-
zilch
okay; i have to ask...why, oh why, would you not want a flying car?
He's a filthy luddite!
-
When you talk to most people about anarco-capitalism (new term: Agorocracy (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=18468.msg344754#msg344754)), the first thing you most often hear is... "But what about the roads! We neeeed the government to put up stop signs and stuff! It'll be anarchy!"
Flying cars would go a very long way to reducing the need for government on a local level, except to enforce minimum altitude laws - a device on your property would transmit your rules for how low people can fly, with there being a special clause for emergency descents. There's so much room in the sky no one should ever be in a right-of-way conflict with anyone else, except when descending into a parking lot in densely populated area, but even then decentralized protocols can be easily worked out. (And new buildings will be able to utilize their roofs as additional parking space!) At cruising altitude, anyone trying to ram you will not be able to come within a mile of you without your radar catching him. You won't even need license plates because you can't just disappear from the sky, your insurance company would have the violator on their radar and track him until he lands. Etc.
Aspiring sci-fi writers, eat your hearts out!
-
zilch
okay; i have to ask...why, oh why, would you not want a flying car?
He's not alone. I don't have any particular desire for one. I guess if they were the standard, and my transportation abilities were going to be somehow hindered by not having one, I'd get one.
-
It would depend how fast it could fly. If it trotted along at 10mph, I'd rather drive. But if it could fly at regular airplane speed, or at least as fast as a car, then it'd be sweet.
-
The only way flying cars will be slower than terrestrial cars is if socialists out in California try to regulate them. :lol:
-
Yeah, well, early adopters will find them marginally faster than terrestrial vehicles, and considerably more expensive--but early adopters will exist, and they'll make the technology viable for the masses. This of course depends on keeping government out of it.
-
You know, there really IS a flying car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElS9BKSsezw&feature=related
-
You know, there really IS a flying car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElS9BKSsezw&feature=related
Yes, it exists, but it doesn't fly. They're allowed to hover it as long as it has a crane attached to it. It probably works, but until the FAA gives them permission to try to fly it, no one will know.
-
You know, there really IS a flying car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElS9BKSsezw&feature=related
Yes, it exists, but it doesn't fly. They're allowed to hover it as long as it has a crane attached to it. It probably works, but until the FAA gives them permission to try to fly it, no one will know.
Are they going after an FAA air worthiness certification? If so, it shouldn't be that hard to get. There are all kinds of flying contraptions out there, and this one, with eight engines, is probably a safer product than many of the others that get into the air.
A cursory view of their website, http://www.moller.com/news.htm, seems to indicate that they want a variant to permit non-pilots to fly the craft. That's something they will have a hard time with.
-
There is a person in my house who has been following the flying car development with great interest for a while.
I'm not eager to be one of the early adopter when the first production years of the moller hits the market.
I'm fine with him getting a plane after he goes through another round flight school & training, but that's a little ways down the list of priorities right now.
-
You know, there really IS a flying car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElS9BKSsezw&feature=related
Yes, it exists, but it doesn't fly. They're allowed to hover it as long as it has a crane attached to it. It probably works, but until the FAA gives them permission to try to fly it, no one will know.
Are they going after an FAA air worthiness certification? If so, it shouldn't be that hard to get. There are all kinds of flying contraptions out there, and this one, with eight engines, is probably a safer product than many of the others that get into the air.
A cursory view of their website, http://www.moller.com/news.htm, seems to indicate that they want a variant to permit non-pilots to fly the craft. That's something they will have a hard time with.
If my recollection serves me correctly, they've been trying to get an FAA certification for years and years. They seem to think they'll have one in the end of 2008. Given past history, I'm not convinced. If they do it right, however, it won't matter if the "driver" is a certified pilot (though the 2008 thing is for a VTOL certified pilot) because it'll basically fly itself.
-
You know, there really IS a flying car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElS9BKSsezw&feature=related
Yes, it exists, but it doesn't fly. They're allowed to hover it as long as it has a crane attached to it. It probably works, but until the FAA gives them permission to try to fly it, no one will know.
Are they going after an FAA air worthiness certification? If so, it shouldn't be that hard to get. There are all kinds of flying contraptions out there, and this one, with eight engines, is probably a safer product than many of the others that get into the air.
A cursory view of their website, http://www.moller.com/news.htm, seems to indicate that they want a variant to permit non-pilots to fly the craft. That's something they will have a hard time with.
Its cool, but doesn't look like much of a car. Look at the tiny little wheels on it. Still very cool
-
Its cool, but doesn't look like much of a car. Look at the tiny little wheels on it. Still very cool
It doesn't need WHEELS! It's a FLYING CAR! :)
-
It's vertical take-off and landing, so it may need to drive around 30 or 40 feet on the ground, max.
-
I don't see anything mentioned on Moller's web site, but it seems to me that if the FAA is the holdup then they can just market them in some other country that has more lenient rules. I'm sure they could sell a bunch as toys to the wealthy of the world. Then (eventually) shame the US into allowing it.
That's a long-term strategy though. Most folks here in the USA are unabashadly anti-capitalism these days and would feel no shame at all.
-
I don't see anything mentioned on Moller's web site, but it seems to me that if the FAA is the holdup then they can just market them in some other country that has more lenient rules. I'm sure they could sell a bunch as toys to the wealthy of the world. Then (eventually) shame the US into allowing it.
That's a long-term strategy though. Most folks here in the USA are unabashadly anti-capitalism these days and would feel no shame at all.
I think they're operating under the principle that the US is the greatest nation on earth--maximum freedom and all that (yeah, so they haven't poked their heads outside the hangar in 40 years.)
-
Flying cars in the sense of one in every garage (or one on every roof) won't be feasible until AI technology is more developed, contrary to popular belief a pilot is more than a glorified bus driver.
-
Flying cars in the sense of one in every garage (or one on every roof) won't be feasible until AI technology is more developed, contrary to popular belief a pilot is more than a glorified bus driver.
It's Moller's plan to make his vehicle completely computer controlled. If each craft had knowledge of every other craft in the air, which is a technology available today, then he's not too far away from seeing that vision. But to be safely computer controlled, the computer would have to see all sorts of things when operating near the ground, from birds, to power lines, to tree branches when landing. This will be hard, and will probably keep the Moller vehicle at the airport until technology can make it a safe vehicle to operate in an urban environment.
The other problem with operating the car in an urban environment is that Moller's machines have eight engines each. This makes them very loud and disruptive of the local environment when lifting into the air. I don't think there is a solution for this.
And one more difficulty, in my view, is that objects in the air are far more sensitive to weather, especially thunderstorms, than are things on the ground. It's difficult to see how people would allow their 16 year old kid access to one of these machines, knowing that at some point, he'll run into a thunderstorm. Today's pilots are well trained to avoid those things.
-
... contrary to popular belief a pilot is more than a glorified bus driver.
I think flying cars can be made 99% auto-piloted, with the driver under normal circumstances only setting the destination, speed-vs-fuel preferences, etc. There'd be a "minimum cruising altitude" that's above any trees or buildings (except maybe in "designated high-rise areas" flight over which would be restricted). Ground computers would let the cars know what the local rules are, although downloading the rule-map for the entire state / country / planet ahead of time would also be possible.
The only reason you'd be allowed to be below that minimum altitude is if you're ascending or descanting - both of which can only be done in a slow, straight, predictable path, with the latter requiring permission from the property owner. Most open parking spaces would have a computer that can communicate with your on-board computer / navigation system. The ground computer will tell you if you have permission to land, what your parking space is, and which approach path to follow. Even if the ground computer gives you erroneous instructions, on board collision detection systems will act as a second layer of safety to prevent collisions. Cars can have a decentralized peer-to-peer system of informing each-other what their planned paths were, and negotiating who has to yield, etc, much like existing networking technologies that avoid packet collision.
Etc.
You know, all those ideas are from the 1990s, when the universe was still big enough, E equaled MC^2, and evildoers weren't hiding under every mattress... We all know that now the future ain't what it used to be...
-
A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Everything they've ever "known" has been proven to be wrong. A thousand years ago everybody knew as a fact, that the earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on it. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
-
A lot of people are convinced that Moller SkyCar is a scam, and I'm pretty sceptical myself. They've been convincing people to give them donations for decades now, and they've been saying the skycar is "almost finished" for, like, 30 years. That and the fact that in every demonstration video, you can see a crane or some other device in the background makes the whole operation highly suspicious. Last I heard they had been given government permission to sell a version of the car that can only fly 6 feet above the ground. Yet despite receiving this permission, this version of the skycar has mysteriously failed to materialize.
-
A lot of people are convinced that Moller SkyCar is a scam, and I'm pretty sceptical myself. They've been convincing people to give them donations for decades now, and they've been saying the skycar is "almost finished" for, like, 30 years. That and the fact that in every demonstration video, you can see a crane or some other device in the background makes the whole operation highly suspicious. Last I heard they had been given government permission to sell a version of the car that can only fly 6 feet above the ground. Yet despite receiving this permission, this version of the skycar has mysteriously failed to materialize.
It might very well be a scam, but the crane isn't part of it. The crane's just tethering the thing (for safety or insurance purposes I guess). It goes slack when the thing flies.
The whole thing might be incapable of sustained flight and maneuvering or burn through a gallon of gas in ten seconds though.
-
(http://crave.cnet.com/i/bto/20070618/jetpack_350x349.jpg)
-
I'll wait for the teleporter.
I came across this post a number of times before, but tonight for some reason it pissed me off. What the hell do you mean, that flight is some sort of a lunatic science fiction? Or do you believe that only large government-regulated corporations should be allowed to lift vehicles off the fucking ground?! You can buy a helicopter cheaper than some cars I have parked across my place right now! And, hell, with all the money the government takes from you to fund the roads you'd be able to afford the fuel 'n stuff!
-
A lot of people are convinced that Moller SkyCar is a scam, and I'm pretty sceptical myself. They've been convincing people to give them donations for decades now, and they've been saying the skycar is "almost finished" for, like, 30 years. That and the fact that in every demonstration video, you can see a crane or some other device in the background makes the whole operation highly suspicious. Last I heard they had been given government permission to sell a version of the car that can only fly 6 feet above the ground. Yet despite receiving this permission, this version of the skycar has mysteriously failed to materialize.
The crane is to satisfy the FAA mandate that all tests be 'tethered'.
Why would anyone want a car which flies 6 ft off the ground? That's just high enough to cause problems.
-
I have no interest in flying cars. Can you imagine the trouble in a wind storm? The flying car prototypes I've seen use either fans or jet engines to maintain lift. Both require huge amounts of fuel. I can hardly afford to operate my terrestrial vehicle!
-
Fuck Flying Cars...keep my ass on the ground...JUST REAL FAST!!!....sipping on Gin and Juice
-
From Commiedot (http://slashdot.org/~AlexLibman/) -- The World's First Commercially Available Jetpack (http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/03/10/0020201/The-Worlds-First-Commercially-Available-Jetpack) --
It's been a long time coming. While Arthur C. Clarke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke)'s geosync satellites have taken to space, and James Bond's futuristic mobile technology has become commonplace, still the dream of sustained personal flight has eluded us - until now. At $86,000, the Martin Aircraft jetpack (http://www.gizmag.com/first-commercially-available-jetpack/14423/) costs about as much as a high-end car, achieves a 30-minute flight time, and is fueled by regular gasoline. A 10% deposit buys you a production slot for 12 months hence.
Here's a video of some indoor test flights (http://www.thebigmoney.com/blogs/shifting-gears/2010/03/05/learn-fly-jetpack-yes-jetpack). This isn't Buck Rogers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Rogers)'s jetpack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack) - it's about 5 by 5 feet and weighs more than the average human. You won't be able to commute with it (the FAA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Aviation_Administration) has not certified this class of device) so it's recreational only for now.
-
Your life.
-
fuck that.
that's like having a small car attached to your back,
this company is way cooler...shades of j. bond in thunderball:
http://www.jetpackinternational.com/
if they could get longer flight times........
[youtube=425,350]<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SmQ450ctKJs&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SmQ450ctKJs&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/youtube]