The SoloTrek XFV is a single person, VTL-only flying machine. It looks really fun (and a bit dangerous - Which makes it more fun!), and is finally flying! [sub]Well, tethered low-power, but still…[/sub]
I WANT one! NOW! Nownownownow!
Can you just imagine the commute into NYC if these became popular? The afternoon exodus would resemble a cloud of locusts. “The black cloud forms at five…”
Simmer down!
And then go build yourself a hydrogen peroxide rocket. That will certainly let you fly, and it’s much cooler. Who needs airfoils when you can have an unstable and possibly explosive chemical propellant strapped to your back? “Counter-rotating fans”, I mean really!
Cool! Explosive transportation! As a bonus, if the tank ruptures and spills on you, you could watch your flesh dissolve!
Don’t hold your breath. That ‘tethered’ flight looked more like a ‘tethered hang’ to me. It looked like they were just testing the ability to rotate.
I’m actually surprised its gotten this far - that company has a history of announcing wild new airplanes that will be available ‘soon’, collecting tons of money selling ‘info-kits’ for $20-$50 each, then quietly fading away, and coming back a year or two later with the next greatest design.
The thing isn’t going to be safe, will never be certified by the FAA, and has so many practical and technical problems that it’ll be a total non-starter as a general transportation device.
If it ever flies at all, it might see limited production for military use, or as a kit-built experimental, or something like that.
Anything that has one engine and several fatal scenarios if the engine quits can’t be certified.
Yeah, I can just see this thing in the hands of commuters. People are dangerous enough with ground-bound cars. How the hell do you think they’re going to behave in a helicopter? Now they can zip over and under you as well as around! Imagine the fun new dangers resulting from wind and draft! Single engine just means you have to pray harder and fly that much more wrecklessly. The death toll would mount like crazy. The ones that weren’t wrecked in the initial madness would be outlawed, or at the least garaged forever. Natch.
Actually, that was a 70% of take-off hover low-power test, and yes, it was to test directional control. I Oicked that one because it’s more interesting than watching it just hover a foot off the ground. They have, however, got it to over under full thrust.
With DARPA follow-on funding now guaranteed (They reached full-power hover ahead of schedule), it looks like it’s gonna be a reality. They ditched the mechanical flight controls for a fly-by-wire system, which was being tested in the tethered hover to which I linked. The original powerplant was/is actually four seperate single-cylinder 2-stroke engines sharing a common crankshaft. The’s being ditched for a turbine engine, as it’s not sufficiently robust. As for recovery in event of engine failure, there’s a ballistic parachute (just don’t stall-out at altitudes less than 100 feet!) Given that, I don’t see that the risk of single-engine failure makes it any more dangerous than single-engine rotary wing flight, of which there’s plenty (lose power in a helo too low, and you’re gonna wreck. At altitude you may be able to auto-rotate: See the only link on this page).
Now, as for the practicality of it, well… Not much. Obviously, the commuter scenario is a fantasy (but that’s what MPSIMS is for, no?), but it’s fun image to play with. People have enough trouble dealing with commuting in two dimensions, so adding a third dimension is just asking for trouble. Too bad - It was a nice fantasy. I imagine that it would be restricted to flying in non-urban enviroments as a civil aircraft, but the other uses are interesting: SAR, police work, military.
Besides, it looks like great way to break one’s neck!
I’d give one of those things a try, but I doubt they’d ever make it. Especially today. Think of it this way: individual, C-4 covered, turbine-powered terrorists clogging up the airways.
Bummer, it looks fun.
Well, I guess it’s open to question whether we’ll see the civil application of the XFV, in view of recent events, but at least it’s reached a more practical level of development than this concept.
[sub]I still want an XFV, dammit![/sub]
Well, there’s also the skycar. Seats four. 900 mile range at 350 mph.
I can see the SoloTrek being very handy as an aerial surveillance vehicle (like for forest fires); the skycar could be used to get fire fighters into areas a helicopter couldn’t land.
By the way, the also make that H2O2 rocket in helicopter form. If not safe, at least it’s quiet.
Is that what “IT” was supposed to be?
Nah. “IT” is supposed to be ground transit of some type.