Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - 06:10 pm:
I've been watching the human cuisanarts as they develop from amatuer to big bucks.
The big bucks guys have a few working prototypes, many many pages of pretty computer pictures, with crowd funding appeals and a lot of disappearing money. The current trend in aviation is to have an attractive web site, cgi movies flying around the pyramids and Amsterdam, and pretty pictures & spec sheets for imaginary planes...... With zero hardware tested or built. It's a lot more profitable than actually making something.
That said, there are a few real working flying machines that you can actually buy, although you may have to wait a few more years. The PAL-V leaning trike/autogyro really works.
A few "motorcycle style" human carrying multi copter drone derivative toys are flying, with various levels of safety vs. obvious death blender.
All the electric planes are short range toys except the motor gliders, where turning the motor off after a 3000 ft climb and soaring is the goal. In a few years the costs will be comparable in THAT application to gas self launchers. Today the batteries are expensive.
And, yes, there are multiple folk tearing apart Zero electric bikes to use the guts in tiny experimental planes.
But commuting 3-500 miles is going to take a new generation of batteries to be practical.
Simply, the energy density of gasoline is many times higher than batteries for the foreseeable future. The lighter weight and size of electric motors compensate for that if the range is tiny. And unlike gasoline, the plane doesn't get lighter as you fly.
For the motor gliders I'm looking at, the battery cost about doubles the cost over gasoline power. That's real world. In ten years?
How is the hoverbike a bike? because of the resemblance of the pilot’s seat to a bike? That doesn’t make it a bike. It’s just a massively unsafe upside-down helicopter.
"How is the hoverbike a bike? because of the resemblance of the pilot’s seat to a bike? That doesn’t make it a bike. It’s just a massively unsafe upside-down helicopter."