Electric Flying Cars Now for Sale by California Company Pivotal (yahoo.com) 47
"A future with flying cars is no longer science fiction," writes the Los Angeles Times.
"All you need to order your own is about $200,000 and some hope and patience." The Palo Alto-based company Pivotal has been developing the technology since 2009 and is nearly ready to bring it to market... [Company founder Marcus] Leng engineered an ultralight, electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing aircraft known as an eVTOL. Other VTOL aircraft, such as helicopters, had existed for decades, but Leng's invention was fixed-wing and didn't rely on gas. The Canadian engineer dubbed his creation BlackFly and spent years working on it in secret. The company moved to the Bay Area in 2014 and by 2018 had developed a second version of BlackFly that laid the groundwork for Helix, the aircraft Pivotal now offers for sale...
Those who are curious — and wealthy — can reserve a Helix today with a $50,000 deposit. The aircraft starts at $190,000 with the option of purchasing a transport trailer for $21,000 and a charger for $1,100. A customer who makes their reservation today could receive their aircraft in nine to 12 months, [Pivotal Chief Executive Ken] Karklin said. It takes less than two weeks to learn how to fly it. In order to complete Pivotal's flight certification training, a customer has to pass the FAA knowledge test and complete ground school. Training, which takes place at the company's Palo Alto headquarters and at the Monterey Bay Academy Airport, teaches customers how to control and maintain the aircraft, as well as how to transport and assemble it...
It is uncertain how fast the company and others like it can ramp up production and how communities will react. Not everyone is on board. Darlene Yaplee, president of the Aviation-Impacted Communities Alliance, said there are concerns about having different types of aircraft in limited airspace. Pivotal has around six early-access customers who already own a version of the BlackFly and are flying it for fun... Helix will have an electric range of about 30 minutes and a cruise speed of 62 mph, the company said. It takes 75 minutes to charge it using a 240 volt charger. The noise produced by the aircraft during takeoff and landing is equivalent to a couple of leaf blowers, Karklin said. When flying it is overhead, someone on the ground might not be able to hear it.
Karklin said the simplicity of the aircraft comes with lower cost, lower weight and higher safety. The aircraft, which has only 18 moving parts, is full of redundancy to prevent system failures.
In short, the article describes it as "a single-person aircraft for recreational use and short-haul travel that also has the potential to support emergency response and military operations."
"All you need to order your own is about $200,000 and some hope and patience." The Palo Alto-based company Pivotal has been developing the technology since 2009 and is nearly ready to bring it to market... [Company founder Marcus] Leng engineered an ultralight, electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing aircraft known as an eVTOL. Other VTOL aircraft, such as helicopters, had existed for decades, but Leng's invention was fixed-wing and didn't rely on gas. The Canadian engineer dubbed his creation BlackFly and spent years working on it in secret. The company moved to the Bay Area in 2014 and by 2018 had developed a second version of BlackFly that laid the groundwork for Helix, the aircraft Pivotal now offers for sale...
Those who are curious — and wealthy — can reserve a Helix today with a $50,000 deposit. The aircraft starts at $190,000 with the option of purchasing a transport trailer for $21,000 and a charger for $1,100. A customer who makes their reservation today could receive their aircraft in nine to 12 months, [Pivotal Chief Executive Ken] Karklin said. It takes less than two weeks to learn how to fly it. In order to complete Pivotal's flight certification training, a customer has to pass the FAA knowledge test and complete ground school. Training, which takes place at the company's Palo Alto headquarters and at the Monterey Bay Academy Airport, teaches customers how to control and maintain the aircraft, as well as how to transport and assemble it...
It is uncertain how fast the company and others like it can ramp up production and how communities will react. Not everyone is on board. Darlene Yaplee, president of the Aviation-Impacted Communities Alliance, said there are concerns about having different types of aircraft in limited airspace. Pivotal has around six early-access customers who already own a version of the BlackFly and are flying it for fun... Helix will have an electric range of about 30 minutes and a cruise speed of 62 mph, the company said. It takes 75 minutes to charge it using a 240 volt charger. The noise produced by the aircraft during takeoff and landing is equivalent to a couple of leaf blowers, Karklin said. When flying it is overhead, someone on the ground might not be able to hear it.
Karklin said the simplicity of the aircraft comes with lower cost, lower weight and higher safety. The aircraft, which has only 18 moving parts, is full of redundancy to prevent system failures.
In short, the article describes it as "a single-person aircraft for recreational use and short-haul travel that also has the potential to support emergency response and military operations."
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Will it be able to fly elon musk out to where the girls are FTW?
Nice light aircraft (Score:5, Insightful)
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Not really a car. And 30 minutes on a charge is really limited.
According to the company's website [pivotal.aero], the plane has a 8 kWh battery and can get about 4 miles/kWh. That would be around 32 miles, but the website also says "Range, with 20% Reserve - 20 miles." Maybe that accounts for the extra power needed during takeoff and landing. The total empty weight of the plane is 254 lbs, so likely more than half the weight is for the battery.
The range is indeed very limited, so this is currently only a limited recreational toy. I wonder if the range could be improved with a gas
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What is their market? I can see a billionaire who owns two islands 20 miles apart might go for this, but anyone else? Carnival rides?
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I thought the super-rich already had their own private helipads to take them from penthouse apartment to office in megapolises such as Sao Paulo?
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$200k is less than the cost of many Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Ferraris and Lamborghinis are not practical cars, as no one in their right mind would park such a car. So, these cars are purely for joyriding. Same thing for this short-trip plane, purely for joyriding. It's not a huge market, but it's a reasonable one.
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Exactly, its not even a very good plane. Terrible range, no space for, well anything but you...
FUCKKK YOUUUU!!!!!!! (Score:5, Informative)
God dammit! STOP calling these things "flying cars" !1!!!ll1l1ll!L1!!!one!one!!.. THEY ARE NOT CARS!! They have no "car" features! You can't drive them anywhere. I might go full Steve Ballmer on any motherfucker that calls these things flying cars one more time. They are electric helicoptors. Electric multi-rotor fuckthings. Fuck!
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A that can drive down the road and can convert into a plane is a flying car.
A vehicle that cannot drive down the road but can take off, is a small aircraft.
A vehicle that cannot drive down the road but can take off vertically, is a small VTOL aircraft.
Re:FUCKKK YOUUUU!!!!!!! (Score:5, Informative)
In The Jetsons the aerocars are antigravity devices that operate effectively like cars only moving through the air. Notice for example a cop on a hover thing "pulling them over" stationary in midair while a ticket is being written. A conceit and premise in The Jetsons is that they live in the sky (for unspecified reasons) but has all of the properties of living on the ground for practical purposes.
Appealing to a fantasy antigravity vehicle that does function like a car is not a strong case in favor there.
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In The Jetsons the aerocars are antigravity devices that operate effectively like cars only moving through the air. Notice for example a cop on a hover thing "pulling them over" stationary in midair while a ticket is being written. A conceit and premise in The Jetsons is that they live in the sky (for unspecified reasons) but has all of the properties of living on the ground for practical purposes.
Appealing to a fantasy antigravity vehicle that does function like a car is not a strong case in favor there.
This is something that has bothered me about the Jetsons... What the living fuck did they do to the surface that was so bad everyone had to live in the sky?
Fuck those details, Esquire. (Score:2)
A vehicle that cannot drive down the road but can take off, is a small aircraft.
A small aircraft that can taxi but cannot take off, is a vehicle.
Proof? If you were on foot running from the zombie horde and I was taxing by and insisted you get in my non-flying vehicle, you would 100% agree that it is in fact a vehicle capable of moving your ass faster than you can.
You said fuck-all about legalities. Be accurate next time.
Re:FUCKKK YOUUUU!!!!!!! (Score:4, Funny)
God dammit! STOP calling these things "cars!" THEY ARE NOT CARS!! etc.
Cars have two wheels and are pulled by horses.
https://romanvehicles.weebly.c... [weebly.com]
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Electric multi-rotor fuckthings.
To be fair, they actually wanted to use this term - but they changed their minds after remembering "EMF" is already in use for something completely different.
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"Now for sale" ...? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me.
A customer who makes their reservation today could receive their aircraft in nine to 12 months
Assuming this company is around in 9-12 months. If anything this sounds like an ad to drum up reservations, aka, funding.
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"for sale" != "in stock"
They're accepting orders. That means they're selling them. And that means they're for sale.
But like you said, we'll see whether they're still around in 9 to 12 months. If their "blackfly" is like the one I grew up swatting away in Ontario, they'll disappear sometime in the early summer after making a damn nuisance of theselves leaving painful, itchy bites.
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Re:"Now for sale" ...? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure they will still be around. I have no connection to them, other than following them on social media for years, but if they were going to do a rug pull that would have happened a LONG time ago. It's a little surprising to me that it's taken this long for them to start taking orders, since their first demonstration flights with a pilot inside were so long ago that I can't remember how long it's been.
It's basically a scaled-up electric quadcopter, but with 8 motors and an unusual shape that's more optimized for forward flight than for hovering. From an FAA standpoint I'm pretty sure it's an ultralight, so it'll probably just be used for joyrides around small airstrips. "Flying car" is the last thing I'd call it.
Anyway my point is that there's nothing that's hard to believe about what they're selling. It's basically just batteries, motors, props, frame/body, seat, controls, canopy, seat, and controls. Anyone familiar with building and flying radio-controlled quadcopters has surely had the same idea, other than the usual shape (which btw is pretty cool, but it looks like landing must be kind of awkward as you basically have to "back it in" every time). It's fundamentally just existing technologies and some product engineering, and the long development process says to me that they're more concerned with getting it right than with spending other peoples' money.
Ironman (Score:2)
20 mile range (Score:3)
The 20 mile range makes this mostly an expensive toy. Would it be amusing to fly? Probably....though I can think of a lot better uses for $200k burning a hole in my pocket.
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Precisely my thoughts. This is a toy for hopping across San Francisco bay.
Total payload is 220lbs. One guy. You will not be going shopping in this.
It's not a car; it's an aircraft (seriously, just look at it -- there's no way this will be rolling down Hwy 101), so takeoff and landing need to be, at best, on a helipad -- which you will have to clear immediately for the next guy coming in whose battery is going flat.
I doubt you could get from Santa
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takeoff and landing need to be, at best, on a helipad -- which you will have to clear immediately for the next guy coming in whose battery is going flat.
Takeoff and landing can be from anywhere you can find 100 square feet of open space and permission from the landowner.
As for having to clear the landing area immediately for the next guy, there are only 6 of these in the world, so the chances of two of them needing to land at exactly the same spot at about the same time are pretty low.
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there are only 6 of these in the world, so the chances of two of them needing to land at exactly the same spot at about the same time are pretty low.
Depends on whether you believe the story about the first two automobiles in Ohio crashing into each other :-)
(spoiler: didn't happen)
Re: 20 mile range (Score:1)
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Flying cars invented (Score:4, Informative)
1) 1907, by Paul Cornu. He called it a helicopter. Did not go commercial until Sikorsky in 1939. You can keep it in your back yard, go straight up, needs no runway, fly anywhere, that's a personal flying vehicle, how is it different than a flying car?
2) 1930 if you demand a road ready vehicle for under $10,000 in 2026 dollars. Barry Bushmeyer created the first Powered Parachute. This is a wheeled vehicle with a pusher fan to push it forward. Get up to 25 miles per hour, release a parachute and up up away you go. You can get up to 10,000 feet in the air, with a max speed of 35 mph.
Helicopters are super expensive and hard to fly. PPCs are cheap, easy and fun to use - but are s.l.o.w. Faster, cheaper, safer, easier is what we have been working on it.
But we have definitely had commercially available flying cars for almost a century.
I'll be surprised (Score:2)
I'll honestly be surprised if this thing ever sees the light of day, and I hope it doesn't. Have you seen the way people drive??
It sounds more like a another grift, we gots da flyin' car yada yada yada, give us the moneys and then someday (lol maybe) we give you...something. Maybe not dat soopah doopah thing we promised you, but, hey, you're already into it for $50 large, we got you by the balls.
I seriously hope this is just a stupid grift.
Not cars (Score:2)
It's a small airplane. The concept of a "flaying car" is that you can drive it on their road AND fly it in the air.
Playing catchup with China? (Score:3)
Flying cars you can order in China:
â GAC GOVY AirCab
- First available for order: late 2024
â Xpeng AeroHT
- First available for order: 2023
â Industrial eVTOLs (Alibaba marketplace)
- First available for order: 2021â"2022
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If it’s legit, (Score:2)
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I respect people who are willing to sink money into ambitious projects like this, but this is about as safe as a hangglider.
Hang glider pilot here -- a hang glider is much safer than this vehicle. A hang glider has zero moving parts, zero electronics, zero propellers, and zero batteries/fuel, so there's much less than can go wrong with it in flight... and even if you do somehow lose control and crash, there's nothing flammable on board, and your speed is typically low enough that your injuries will be minimal.
The Helix is a very cool vehicle, but I'm glad it's other people flying it and not me :)
Flying modes (Score:2)
I'm kind of surprised by the shape. It doesn't have to be long, it could be tall. You're unlikely to be going fast enough to really care about the additional cross-section, and you could make it step-in, step out.
Stand it on end and reconfigure the seat. You'd have much, much better visibility for the pilot.
Can I "drive" this to my grocery store? (Score:2)
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That, and can I park it in my garage?
Well, on the other hand, who does *that* anymore!
Long running scam.....since 2009 (Score:2)
"All you need to order your own" (Score:2)
It's been possible to order a flying car on the internet for 30 years. It's just getting one delivered that's the problem.
Still a toy. (Score:2)
NOT for sale (Score:3)
You can give them $9000 to "reserve" a flying car. Maybe they sell you a flying car in the future maybe they give you back the $9K without interest. That is NOT the same a s "for sale now".
It appears to be certified as an ultralight under part 103 which means it can only be flown over non-congested areas. It has a range of 20 miles, at 62mph.
It can carry 220 pounds. Something like 28% of Americans report weighting more than 200 lbs, and clothes and a briefcase mean that probably 1/4 of Americans are too heavy for this. Its not in any sense a "car" since it has no road capability.
Its very difficult to think of an actual use case for this. Its a fun toy for people who can spend almost $200K on toys, but not really practical. How many people need to fly between 2 locations that are in non-congested areas, and where each has 240V service next to a landing pad. Also in non-congested areas its not going to be significantly faster than a car, and slower unless you have a takeoff / landing pad at your house.
air traffic control (Score:2)