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Kitty Hawk reveals its secret project, Heaviside

(techcrunch.com)
171 points BrooklynRage | 1 comments | 03 Oct 19 17:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.259s | source
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heyflyguy ◴[06 Oct 19 00:52 UTC] No.21169039[source]▶
Every time I see a multirotor carrying people, I think of the many times while building them at the beginning of the drone renaissance that I saw 4/6/8 bladed multirotors have an AP failure, a blade break, a speed controller overheat, etc etc and it fell out of the sky, literally.

These do not have a glideslope!

Sure, a ballistic chute might prevent an onboard tragedy but I continue to wonder about what the flying car gets parachuted onto. What fires get started? Who gets crushed?

Super cool tech. Huge accomplishment for the engineers involved.

I want to know how this makes a safe unpowered descent.

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badrabbit ◴[06 Oct 19 01:04 UTC] No.21169094[source]▶
I don't know much about this aircraft but this appears to be a winged aircraft which unlike quadcopters and helicopters,losing an engine or rotor does not translate to a crash(?) because it had n number of rotors on each side,if one is lost,you lose altitude maybe and turn off matching rotors on the other side,which naively appears safer than a helicopter.
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heyflyguy ◴[06 Oct 19 01:05 UTC] No.21169106[source]▶
Could be, I hope so. I really want to ride in one if they are indeed safe. With all of those motors and props in the air, that's a whole bunch of parasitic drag if it is able to glide.
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1. badrabbit ◴[06 Oct 19 01:14 UTC] No.21169146[source]▶
For public transport or work commute,they don't need to fly that high. Maybe worst case they will be allowed at low altitude over water ways or low enough to where pre-emptive air-bag deployment would make it safe. In many ways hover craft is safer than cars I think,mostly because of the space available and lack of breaks (they say most car fatalities happen when people hit the break out of panic).