Surefly Helicopter

[LJS1993]

Forgive me if that has been discussed previously guys. However I am new and thought this might be something interesting nonetheless. It sounds great but overall what is the catch? What is wrong with this design? Does it hold promise? I can't find a video of it flying so is it merely hype?

 

http://workhorse.com/surefly

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gIBujk7cAE

[RisePilot]

This is a “festival” of poor design. It looks like crap, not aerodynamic and not safe. What is it’s purpose.

What were they thinking? We make electric pickup trucks; lets try making an aircraft.

​I've grown tired of all of these "gonna be available next year; get your deposits in" drone type concept vehicles.

[RisePilot]

While discussing poor design, how about this abomination www.volocopter.com or this much-hyped Chinese death machine http://www.ehang.com/ehang184/

To quote Chris Rock: “Just because something is possible, doesn’t mean you should do it. You can drive a car with your feet; doesn’t make it a good idea.”

[mudkow60]

 

 

To quote Chris Rock: “Just because something is possible, doesn’t mean you should do it. You can drive a car with your feet; doesn’t make it a good idea.”

 

 

 

Unless you have no hands... then it is necessary.

[Eric Hunt]

The noise will be horrendous, screaming little rotors, changing RPM to change lift; the undercarriage, with all those triangles, appears rock solid, so any landing bump will be passed straight into the cabin, no crash energy absorption.

 

Looks like my 4-y.o. grandson built it from Lego. And will be equally as practical.

[LJS1993]

 

While discussing poor design, how about this abomination www.volocopter.com or this much-hyped Chinese death machine http://www.ehang.com/ehang184/

 

To quote Chris Rock: “Just because something is possible, doesn’t mean you should do it. You can drive a car with your feet; doesn’t make it a good idea.”

 

 

That EHANG aircraft looks like something out of Star Trek.

[overtorque]

These things look like they've been designed by people who have never researched or experienced aircraft. They evidently didn't care about the nuanced problems in scaling up toys to human sizes.

[Wally]

1 hour at 70 mph, 400 lb payload, 2 seats.

By the time you preflight, fly up to 70 miles (no wind) minimal baggage? Quicker, more efficient and easier to drive.

 

Has it flown? I see that the FAA approved it as experimental, scheduled to fly at 2018 CES, but did it?

[pilotarix]

The Ehang has recently hovered somewhat around with a passenger.

The Volocopter is flying around a little bit longer and has preliminary airworthiness certification in Germany. There is a lot of redundancy implemented, and it has a ballistic recovery system.

Ehang and Volocopter are both flown with passengers but the majority of videos you can find they are flying without passengers, no video of happy smiling faces sitting in either one of the aircraft at altitude.

At least in the Volocopter, that should be possible, and so I am wondering why they don't do that.

However, that is the future. Likely not tomorrow and not in a couple of years but once we have overcome the problems of storing the electric energy there are no boundaries anymore. Electric engines are way more efficient than combustion engines.

[Eric Hunt]

Anti-gravity belts will be on sale before these things, and then we can just drift around by ourselves.

[chris pochari]

3 issue with EVTOL

#1 No autoration, Ballastic parachute is required

#2 Quadcopters are much less efficient than conventional helicopters, much discussion on this over at Stackexchange.

#3 Lithium ion batteries still have low energy density compared to fossil fuels, a hybrid system will be required, fully electric is unlikely.

[voyagerB]

Don't be so quick to dismiss the whole eVTOL phenomena. Many projects are underway; some from reputed builders. And it is a particularly hot topic with the American Helicopter Society AHS. Below an overview of well-known eVTOL projects.

 

[chris pochari]

Don't be so quick to dismiss the whole eVTOL phenomena. Many projects are underway; some from reputed builders. And it is a particularly hot topic with the American Helicopter Society AHS. Below an overview of well-known eVTOL projects.

 

EVTOL has potential, they just need to overcome those three issues.