The future of flying

EuropeanCanon said:
I don't believe this safer than driving a car line. For a start I travel in a car far more than I fly in a plane. Also, I have never yet heard of a car accident in which 350 people were all killed instantly.
Click to expand...
If you have a system failure in a car, you break down and pull off to the side of the road. If an aircraft has a system failure, you plummet into the ground and blow up (or get sucked out of the plane, or suffocate, or burn alive before the plane actually crashes). In a car, you’re the one in control. In a passenger plane, you’re squashed into a little tube that was fueled up and screwed back together by the dindus on the tarmac and you can’t even see what’s in front of you. I used to love flying back when I was younger. Now, not so much.

Flying a commercial aircraft takes more than just a competent pilot, it requires a complex system involving coordination of ground and air control, maintenance, other flight crew, etc. This also includes the design and manufacture of aircraft that isn’t cutting corners to save a few bucks or to meet arbitrary deadlines. I would imagine this should also include hiring people who can at least pronounce a three-syllable word without difficulty.
 
EuropeanCanon said:
I don't believe this safer than driving a car line. For a start I travel in a car far more than I fly in a plane. Also, I have never yet heard of a car accident in which 350 people were all killed instantly.
Click to expand...


Globally, based on 2022 accident rates, you'd need to take a flight every day for 25,000 years to experience a catastrophic crash. USA aviation is safer than any other country as well so you could amplify that domestically. The last major crash in the USA was Colgan Air 3407 in 2009, which killed 50 and prompted dramatic reform, since then there have been a total of 2 fatalities in 15 years from airline accidents in America: https://www.airlines.org/dataset/safety-record-of-u-s-air-carriers/

Catastrophic accidents of airliners are certainly more dramatic and scary but let's not let that get in the way of rational analysis.

Of course you do have more control over risk management as a driver than as a passenger which feels better holistically (I would certainly rather have my fate in my own hands), but I bet even if we took the 'faultless fatality' rates in cars only, airline travel would still compare favorably.
 
Not really related to aircraft but do you guys think that we could be flying in the future instead of driving? For example drones, they already using drones for courier deliveries could it be possible they could come up with drones to replace cars? Drones can be programmed and can fly themselves and you dont have to rely on huge infrustructure like building and maintaining roads and bridges and when traffic gets bad you can just create another lane a few meters higher, not sure what they would do with rain and bad weather though but is this possibly a future transportation?
 
GoodShepherd said:
Not really related to aircraft but do you guys think that we could be flying in the future instead of driving?
Click to expand...
I think in the future we will be lucky to drive at all.

They are already well on their way to making cars unaffordable (You Will Own Nothing And Like It). I've been pricing a *lightly used* car and it costs half of what my first house did in 2003.

But sure, maybe in Japan or something, yeah.
 
Rax Moscow said:
I think in the future we will be lucky to drive at all.

They are already well on their way to making cars unaffordable (You Will Own Nothing And Like It). I've been pricing a *lightly used* car and it costs half of what my first house did in 2003.

But sure, maybe in Japan or something, yeah.
Click to expand...
The new cars are very expensive and the engines are no longer simple or easy to work on, spare parts and computer parts have to be ordered from overseas etc, this just brings up the price of cars and not to even mention the price of fuel, that alone is making cars too expensive to drive, so maybe they will make some kind of drone public transport system, not for the individual to own as it gives us too much freedom, but the idea of a human being flying on an airoplane was a crazy wild idea not so long ago, nobody would have ever thought it possible, now its the norm, so lets see where we go with flying drone type cars, it would definately sort out the traffic problems in certain places, lets see what happens
 
Flying Car Startup Selling 100 Vehicles to Dubai Company
An aviation company in Dubai has signed a deal with a Dutch business to bring the world's first flying car to the Middle East and Africa. Aviterra, an aviation and aerospace component manufacturing company, will buy more than 100 of PAL-V's Liberty flying cars and invest in the European company. The Pal-V (personal air and land vehicle) vehicle Liberty is certified to drive on public roads and expects its aviation certification this year.
Click to expand...
World's first flying cars get ready to take Dubai residents from door to door

 
Thomas More said:
I notice they did a cut scene from driving to ready to fly. I imagine it takes two men about an hour to reconfigure the vehicle from car to airplane.

More like two certified aircraft mechanics.
Click to expand...
I doubt the sheikhs would buy 100 vehicles at ~$600k each if that were the case. Whatever else they are, they are certainly not fools.

As stated and embedded in one of the articles above: "Transformation from road driving to flying takes five minutes, according to the company."
 
TruckDriver9 said:
^
What's the flight hours to maintenance hours ratio on that thing ?
Click to expand...
I have no idea, I guess that's something to ask the company representatives.
Samseau said:
Any videos of the flying car, you know, flying? Looks like a scam to me.
Click to expand...
They have videos on YooTube so anyone who cares can check them out. I don't. Not my car, not my company, might as well be a scam for all I care. I posted it as a curiosity in connection with а previous post. I guess we will see later this year when they get that aviation certificate or deliver the first batch to UAE.
 
Engineering is hard, and prototype demonstrations tend to be optimized and idealized way beyond real world practical capabilities.

Nevertheless, I assume they are actually able to fly, and are making progress towards the time when an ordinary consumer could own and operate one of these devices.

I expect it will still be a niche device for a while, like any other flying machine.
 
I'm sure the government will allow people to just fly their cars over schools full of kids, airport runways, military areas, border areas, sensitive government buildings, and anywhere where elites have their mansions.

And even if the flying car was 100% remotely controlled and automatic with a very limited flight path, it still would not work, or would be highly dangerous to use, in windy weather, lightning storms, snow, hail, sand or dust storms, and anything more than light rain.

Flying cars will never work they way they were sold to us in the movies "blade runner" or "back to the future 2".
 
Last edited:
GMinhTCXEAEG4aC


JUST IN: A second whistleblower connected to Boeing has suddenly died at the age of 45 after catching a “sudden illness.”

Whistleblower Joshua Dean was known for being in good health and having a healthy lifestyle.

Dean was one of the first whistleblowers to accuse Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems of cutting corners.

He was fired in April 2023.

Dean was rushed to the hospital two weeks ago for having trouble breathing.

His condition began to worsen.

He was intubated and developed pneumonia before contracting a bacterial infection, MRSA.

According to a CT scan, he also suffered a stroke.

Dean was represented by the same law firm who represented Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, who allegedly committed su*cide in March.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top