Flying Car Makes Successful Maiden Flight 249
MistrX writes "The Dutch company PAL-V completed its first series of test flights with its flying car, the PAL-V One, successfully. The PAL-V One flies like a gyrocopter, with a minimal runway length of 165 meters, and drives around like a trike on the road. Furthermore it offers 2 passengers a maximum speed of 180km/h both on land and in the air. The company aims with the PAL-V One at usage within the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, because private flying is more commonplace."
Not a flying car (Score:5, Insightful)
A roadable aircraft. A flying car needs VTOL capability.
And until it's legal to take off and land anywhere, even a true flying car could still only be used like a roadable aircraft.
Is it powered by useless apostrophes? (Score:4, Insightful)
In that case slashdotters could fuel it for a trip to Andromeda.
"completed it's first series of test flights with it's flying car"
"completed it is first series of test flights with it is flying car"
Really? WHERE did you learn that? STOP IT!
Awesome (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not a flying car (Score:3, Insightful)
You'd rather deal with an FAA violation than a speeding ticket? Really?
Re:Not a flying car (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure that the police do not have jurisdiction to shoot down aircraft.
Re:Not a flying car (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Gyrocopter (Score:4, Insightful)
In fixed wing aircraft, the wing and the aircraft are moving through the air at the same speed. At lower speeds, the pilot has to increase the angle of attack to maintain lift. When the airspeed is too low or the angle of attack becomes to high, the wing stalls and the aircraft drops like a stone. With an autogyro, the wing (rotor) is moving through the air stream at a speed that is independent of the aircraft speed. As the angle of attack is increased, the rotor slows, but it does not suddenly stall and lose all lift like a fixed wing, rather the autogyro gradually loses lift and descends.
The instability in autogyros has to do with old designs and how a trained fixed wing pilot instinctively reacts to pitch instability. When a fixed wing aircraft starts to stall, the pilot puts the nose down and increases power (increases airspeed and lowers the angle of attack). However if you do this in an autogyro, it can cause the aircraft to pitch over and tumble. This is called Pilot Induced Oscillation (PIO) and can be significantly reduced with autogyro specific training for pilots and more stable designs with large aft mounted horizontal stabilizers. The other source of instability with autogyros is called Power Push Over (PPO) and is possible only in pusher prop designs when the center of gravity is below the line of thrust, the thrust of the engine can make the aircraft duck or push over. Both problems are solved by better designs and type specific training.
From the pictures of the PAL-V it appears to have a large horizontal stabilizer, however it is difficult to tell where the center or gravity in flight mode is.