Electric Air Taxi Completes Maiden Flight At 70kph (freemalaysiatoday.com) 47
UK startup Vertical Aerospace has achieved a significant milestone as its electric flying taxi, the VX4, successfully completed its first fully detached flight at Cotswold Airport in southwest England. The prototype flew at a speed of approximately 70 km/h and was remotely controlled using electric batteries. From a report: The flight marks another milestone for Vertical, which completed a smaller tethered hover test with the VX4 in September last year. Vertical said it will continue to test the aircraft with the intention of performing a piloted flight in the future. The company previously said it would achieve certification by 2025 but pushed this back to the end of 2026 after reviewing the programme's timeline.
Aerospace firms including Rolls-Royce Holdings, Honeywell and GKN Ltd are working with Vertical to create the eight-propeller VX4. Vertical has raked in more than 1,400 pre-orders with customers such as Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, American Airlines Group Inc, and Avolon Holdings Ltd.
Aerospace firms including Rolls-Royce Holdings, Honeywell and GKN Ltd are working with Vertical to create the eight-propeller VX4. Vertical has raked in more than 1,400 pre-orders with customers such as Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, American Airlines Group Inc, and Avolon Holdings Ltd.
Link goes to reputable aerospace news site (Score:2)
WTAF?
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Sit down for this, it will shock you. ...
The land of "there be dragons" doesn't actually contain dragons.
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FMT is one of the more reputable Malaysian news platforms, not being connected to Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Harapan like most of the other ones. The Library of Congress includes FMT in its archives for its coverage of events in Sabah and Sarawak. Dilarang bodoh, mat salleh.
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The words on FMT are cut and pasted from the original, visible on Bloomberg here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-18/electric-air-taxi-startup-completes-first-flight-test-at-70kph
Very lazy editors might make this sort of mistake.
REALLY lazy editors, who don't give a shit about their job, don't correct it.
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Bloomberg is behind a paywall. As far as I'm concerned, those "very lazy editors" are doing a service mirroring what they said.
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Here: https://archive.ph/wTyNW
Up your game.
Unsafe experimental toy (Score:3, Insightful)
Those things are unsafe toys, not able to pass the experimental stage.
Rushed redefined (Score:4, Interesting)
It fits the modern definition of the word "rush"
to rush (verb - rushed; rushing; rushes)
intransitive verb
1: to get into service a product based on a fundamentally unsafe design, to reject any safety concerns as insults
-- "This experimental carbon fiber submarine has been rushed into deep sea passenger service without consideration for safety."
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Well you heard it folks. Put a fork in this program because it’s finished.
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Is it 'flying cars' year again? (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:Is it 'flying cars' year again? (Score:5, Funny)
The twelve tech future zodiac signs are
"actual AI" (2022/23), "flying cars" (2023/24), "Linux Desktop", "works in mice", "email is dead", "cold fusion",
"Excel is dead", "death of democracy", "grand unified physics", "human extinction", "cryptocurrency everywhere", and "infinite failure of kids these days".
Note that "cryptocurrency" recently replaced "Jobs\Gates ascension to godhood" when the constellations shifted.
No doubt another rich man's transportation option (Score:2)
I guarantee you no man with an ordinary salary will be able to afford a ride in one of those things.
I flew in on one of the M1 prototypes. (Score:3)
Practical? (Score:1)
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Yep. The actual website says it travels "up to 200mph" but I'm guessing that means "designed to... we think". My guess; aimed exclusively at rich assholes who want to avoid waiting in traffic in busy cities. Think flying over the city in London, NYC, Paris, São Paulo, etc. over the poor plebs stuck in traffic below. With no need for a runway but limited range it's like a small battery-powered helicopter. Maybe take (rich) people between airports and hotels/offices, etc.
It's not gonna be for the likes o
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Of course, no need for a runway, but it's going to have to get back to a place equipped to deal with the battery being drained, severely cutting into the 100 mile range, since it's travels must start and end at some designated handling facility.
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... and this is why they're paving a ring at a 100 mile (161 km) radius around Heathrow... :-)
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Well, to take one example of a trip I take pretty frequently, on a *very* good day I'll average about 95 kph. That trip is about 49km long so about 31 minutes (depending on traffic however, it has taken over an hour, so there are days where 50 kph is the average, but ignore that for a moment). So on a good day, I'm travelling much faster than this thing flies.
However, if I were able to go straight toward my destination, it's only 30km. So despite going slower, my trip is only 26 minutes, which is faster t
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After bothering to research rather than just read the summary:
"The VX4 is claimed to be capable of travelling over 200 mph (320 km/h), with a range of over 100 miles (160.9 km) and capacity for 4 passengers, and a pilot."
So it's claimed velocity and range if true would be very compelling in a lot of scenarios. Though of course I wonder what the range is at given velocities.
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So on a good day, I'm travelling much faster than this thing flies.
Says the one who did not read the article.
That thing will fly 2x as fast as you do.
And it will fly: point to point, and not following a road.
However the capacity to fly straight and traffic free can well make up for a lower operational velocity.
That is one of the plans. But I guess regulators will need to find "flight corridors" for them, to be able to do so.
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Definitely not that! To me heavy traffic means I am going less than 110kph (70 MPH). I couldn't imagine living in an area with a very dense population. Even the suburban US, where I am now, is way too dense for me and one day I'll be moving to somewhere far more rural.
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This is aiming to be in between transportation between limousines used by rich and helicopters used by the very rich. Because limousines are still slow AF in large cities, and waste a lot of time.
Moving such people via what is essentially a cheaper mini-helicopter with less requirements for landing makes some financial sense for large cities, which is likely the niche they're targeting. Wealthy enough to afford helicopter rides, but not enough to finance altering of roof structures to add a helipad.
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Remote control with electric batteries? (Score:3)
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Yes, he did. And power was supplied to the motors by the radio control unit.
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put the cells up in the air
put the cells in the air
wave em around like you don't care
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'remotely controlled using batteries' (Score:2)
It's that what they use to control stuff these days?
Why not the windshield wipers?
I know what they meant but that's not what they said
Okay, so what's the market? (Score:1)
I guess this is really just an electric quadcopter. And that's fine from a technology point of view, but the speed and range seem limited so I can't imagine people using this to travel more than 30 miles/50km or so, so wondering who they want to sell this to.
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My guess is that the technology will become the new executive helicopter and be used for hopping buildings in cities and trips to the airport.
We're not putting one in every driveway for the common rabble to commute to work in - the energy requirements, the landing requirements (they still need a place to land where they aren't a risk to pedestrians or regular road traffic), and the limited range of weather they can fly in will all collude to restrict their use to the wealthy.
-On a side note... could Slashdo
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It appears from the pictures to be an electric tilt-rotor, i.e. it takes off vertically but flies like a plane. That will allow much larger range than a quadcopter design.
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Well, *if* it is as promised, the speed and range seem pretty viable for "taxi" applications:
"The VX4 is claimed to be capable of travelling over 200 mph (320 km/h), with a range of over 100 miles (160.9 km) and capacity for 4 passengers, and a pilot."
Though there's lots of room to wonder "but what's the range at 200 mph, and what's the speed if you want to get to 100 miles of range".
I'm skeptical about it, but the described capability seem to be pretty viable. Particularly in areas that struggle with fre
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According to the summary it's an octocopter, but maybe the meaning of "quadcopter" has expanded from the obvious one.
Sounds familiar (Score:3)
"But the technology and infrastructure for eVTOLs have yet to receive often complex regulatory approval, meaning it could potentially take years before any enter commercial service."
The ghost of Stockton Rush agrees - Damn regulations!
Joystick (Score:2)
extraordinary lack of info for a first flight? (Score:1)
That link says literally nothing more than 'it flew at 70kph'.
How far?
How long?
Circumstances?
For what should be a rather triumphal proof-of-concept it's rather light on details.
Some people in 2023 might even expect a video?
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Already happening (Score:2)
My friend works for a company that's already done this. In two years there will be commercial service - there's already contracts in place for multiple companies to start service in 2025 in Chicago and NYC, going between airports.
It's never going to replace cars, but price aim is a few hundred dollars for a short flight, with a capacity of like 4 people. Definitely within reach for a rich person.
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My friend works for a company that's already done this. In two years there will be commercial service - there's already contracts in place for multiple companies to start service in 2025 in Chicago and NYC, going between airports.
It's never going to replace cars, but price aim is a few hundred dollars for a short flight, with a capacity of like 4 people. Definitely within reach for a rich person.
Capability wise I'm not sure how they're better than helicopters.
But if they are significantly cheaper to operate I'm less interested in their potential for flights between airports and more for their potential for emergency services.
If you can find the landing space it would surely be a lot faster to reach someone inside a city than sending out an ambulance.
Electric (Score:1)