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The Kitty Hawk Flyer is your own personal electric aircraft

JacksinPA

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https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/9/17438012/kitty-hawk-flying-flying-car-vtol-larry-page

A year ago, we got our first look at Google founder Larry Page’s secretive “flying car” project, Kitty Hawk: an all-electric hover-bike designed to be flown specifically over water. This week, the company unveiled an updated version of its recreational aircraft, the Flyer. And it’s quite the improvement over the original concept.

The Flyer weighs 250 pounds and sports 10 battery-powered propellors and two joysticks. It looks sort of like bobsled mounted on a couple of pontoons surrounded by a bunch of drone rotors — so, you know, totally safe I’m sure. Its not intended for soaring through the clouds like you’re George Jetson, with a maximum elevation is 10 feet and a top speed (limited by the flight control system) of 20 mph. Kitty Hawk has kept the pontoons for water landings, but gotten rid of the protective netting from the original prototype.

AN IMPROVEMENT OVER THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT
The company won’t say when the Flyer goes on sale, what the final price will be, or whether they’ve received any orders yet. Those who want to join the Founders Series can fill out an online form and join a waiting list. One of the questions is where potential customers intend to fly the aircraft if they get one.
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Training to fly the Flyer takes about 2 hours. Where you could fly this thing & what FAA regulations would apply were not stated.
 
Exclusive: We took a ride in Kitty Hawk's flying car

We took an exclusive ride in a flying car (video)

"It's as easy to use as playing Minecraft," Kitty Hawk CEO Sebastian Thrun said as we watched my colleague Rachel Crane pull on a motorcycle helmet.
Rachel and I had just flown into Las Vegas for an exclusive first look at the Silicon Valley single-seat flying machine, Flyer.

Kitty Hawk, funded by Google cofounder Larry Page and led by Thrun, a self-driving car pioneer, attracted nationwide attention when it teased its Flyer prototype last year.

But now Rachel was suiting up to become the first reporter to take flight in a new, sleeker model -- no pilot license required. Expectedly, she was nervous and I was relieved it wasn't me sitting in the pilot's seat. The 250-pound vehicle resembles a cross between a drone and a pontoon plane. Ten propellers twirled around her as I watched from 50 feet away.
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It's a big drone with lots of lifting propellers & a cockpit for the pilot. Low altitude & low speed.
 
In the blink of an eye it will all be here. I'm 55, I have no doubt that I'll see most of this stuff in everyday life before I'm dead.
 
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/9/17438012/kitty-hawk-flying-flying-car-vtol-larry-page

A year ago, we got our first look at Google founder Larry Page’s secretive “flying car” project, Kitty Hawk: an all-electric hover-bike designed to be flown specifically over water. This week, the company unveiled an updated version of its recreational aircraft, the Flyer. And it’s quite the improvement over the original concept.

The Flyer weighs 250 pounds and sports 10 battery-powered propellors and two joysticks. It looks sort of like bobsled mounted on a couple of pontoons surrounded by a bunch of drone rotors — so, you know, totally safe I’m sure. Its not intended for soaring through the clouds like you’re George Jetson, with a maximum elevation is 10 feet and a top speed (limited by the flight control system) of 20 mph. Kitty Hawk has kept the pontoons for water landings, but gotten rid of the protective netting from the original prototype.

AN IMPROVEMENT OVER THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT
The company won’t say when the Flyer goes on sale, what the final price will be, or whether they’ve received any orders yet. Those who want to join the Founders Series can fill out an online form and join a waiting list. One of the questions is where potential customers intend to fly the aircraft if they get one.
======================================================
Training to fly the Flyer takes about 2 hours. Where you could fly this thing & what FAA regulations would apply were not stated.

I call Shenanigans.
 
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/9/17438012/kitty-hawk-flying-flying-car-vtol-larry-page

A year ago, we got our first look at Google founder Larry Page’s secretive “flying car” project, Kitty Hawk: an all-electric hover-bike designed to be flown specifically over water. This week, the company unveiled an updated version of its recreational aircraft, the Flyer. And it’s quite the improvement over the original concept.

The Flyer weighs 250 pounds and sports 10 battery-powered propellors and two joysticks. It looks sort of like bobsled mounted on a couple of pontoons surrounded by a bunch of drone rotors — so, you know, totally safe I’m sure. Its not intended for soaring through the clouds like you’re George Jetson, with a maximum elevation is 10 feet and a top speed (limited by the flight control system) of 20 mph. Kitty Hawk has kept the pontoons for water landings, but gotten rid of the protective netting from the original prototype.

AN IMPROVEMENT OVER THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT
The company won’t say when the Flyer goes on sale, what the final price will be, or whether they’ve received any orders yet. Those who want to join the Founders Series can fill out an online form and join a waiting list. One of the questions is where potential customers intend to fly the aircraft if they get one.
======================================================
Training to fly the Flyer takes about 2 hours. Where you could fly this thing & what FAA regulations would apply were not stated.

PT Barnem was right there is a sucker born every minute. Larry page got took.
 
PT Barnem was right there is a sucker born every minute. Larry page got took.

Larry Page has more money than he can spend in his lifetime. At least he's doing something fun & constructive.
 
Larry Page has more money than he can spend in his lifetime. At least he's doing something fun & constructive.

I don't dispute that. But the concept that is being sold as revolutionary, is anything but. It's a glorified Cuisinart. I am partners in a company that builds specialized drones and control systems. I would have fired the kitty hawk people if they brought that to me. Iterations of polycoptors advance nothing and involve very little risk and more importantly not onesize fits all. Cars are transportation above all else, not spotting and mapping platforms. Polycoptors are good at being fairly stable and hovering. You need a diffeerent form for moving distance relatively efficently.
 
I don't dispute that. But the concept that is being sold as revolutionary, is anything but. It's a glorified Cuisinart. I am partners in a company that builds specialized drones and control systems. I would have fired the kitty hawk people if they brought that to me. Iterations of polycoptors advance nothing and involve very little risk and more importantly not onesize fits all. Cars are transportation above all else, not spotting and mapping platforms. Polycoptors are good at being fairly stable and hovering. You need a diffeerent form for moving distance relatively efficently.

I'm not a futurist but this sort of thing, as it is currently, will have a market as a novelty for rich people & their kids. Something to play with at the lake house. What else they have in mind for the future we'll have to wait & see.

One note: the fiberglass fuselage looks to be of high quality from a mold. That means volume production capability. The fuselage is probably the most expensive component.

That reporter who flew the thing had no problems even landing it back on its dry pad. Likely uses gyro attitude stabilization & a joystick fly-by-wire avionics package.
 
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