Originally published at: VTOL electronic vehicle flies one and is yours for $92k | Boing Boing
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How easy is it to get insurance for those?
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For that special person in your life who already has a jetski and a leaf blower…
(expanse of dramatic, empty desert not included.)
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“Everyone is a pilot”, eh?
I wonder what the FAA, CAA or other national regulators might say about that.
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If it’s under 254 pounds and flies less than 55 knots, the FAA considers it a part 103 ultralight and no plane registration nor pilot license is required.
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20 minutes battery life? I can already picture my first flight, in which I get caught up in the thrill and then realize the batteries are dead and I’m 300 feet in the air.
I don’t see any fixed wings that might make it something other than a falling object at that point.
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This seems like an exciting and fun way to die tragically.
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It seems to be going for that classification all right. And it’s supplied in kit form only so it’s also a homebuilt.
I think in the US that makes it fairly hassle free, but in Europe there will still be a licence requirement and paperwork.
It’s a nice thing. I hope it works out for them.
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It has a ballistic parachute.
That’s not to say it’s not a dangerous contraption, but falling from 300 ft shouldn’t be a problem.
Falling from 30 ft might be though.
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That’s all I really wanted.
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You know you can get that without buying an ultralight?
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Most modern drones can land themselves in a controlled or semi-controlled way when the battery runs out, rather than dropping like a brick. Plus there’s the ballistic chute. This may or may not be safer than hang gliding or existing ultralights on the market, time will tell.
Personally I’d be more concerned about people nearby getting hit by the unguarded blades during low altitude maneuvers.
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Yeah. I’m always on the lookout.
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In order to be legal in the US, it basically has to be a part 103 ultralight, which is the “do whatever you want because you’re mostly just a danger to yourself” category. Other countries may have similar categories but usually require at least some license.
Multirotor electric craft are a novel enough concept that there really aren’t certification standards for building them, or training standards for pilots, so (again speaking of the US) you can’t even fit them into relatively permissive categories like “experimental amateur-built” or “light sport aircraft”. If multirotors start to take off (pun accidental), the FAA will probably create standards, but I’d expect that to take a decade or two.
The 20-minute flight time could probably be extended a bit if it weren’t in the ultralight category, which has an unfortunate bias against electric; “fuel” for traditional craft doesn’t count toward the weight limit, but batteries do.
As others have mentioned, it has a ballistic parachute for emergencies, but I also would assume, or at least hope, that the battery management holds enough power in reserve to do a controlled descent from altitude rather than just letting the battery discharge all the way to the cutoff voltage and dropping like a rock.
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The $100k price tag will keep most of us from ever seeing it up close and personal.
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And the “some assembly required” gets this out of having to have the vehicle itself approved by the FAA.
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I wonder if the software can detect and compensate for loss of a motor/blade enough to attempt a wounded pigeon landing?
Hm. Is the controller some Arm board with gyro intended for hobby drone use? How fast can it reboot if it hangs?
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Having rooted around in the couch to no avail, I guess this particular brand of (likely) vaporware is going to have to be for the richies who want to John Denver themselves.
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