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US Air Force just demoed its first flying car, and it's excessive:
It's no secret that the US Air Force wants flying cars. The branch of the US Military announced last year that it was starting to explore electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) craft, and earlier this year, said it wants 30 vehicles in service by 2030.
After its first demonstration last week, the Air Force has just got a little closer to this goal.
[...] On Thursday last week, officials gathered in Austin, Texas to witness the first demonstration of a flying car, the 18 rotor Hexa made by Texas eVTOL startup, LIFT Aircraft.
[...] The picture below shows you pretty much everything else you need to know. The Hexa generates lift with a load of electric rotors, has space for one passenger, and it takes off from a standstill in a vertical direction.
One thing is for sure, these eVTOL craft look kinda dorky, or you might even say excessive. We'll have to come round to their aesthetic sooner or later because that excessiveness is kind of a safety requirement. LIFT says that the Hexa can land safely with up to six rotors disabled.
The demonstration was all part of what the Air Force calls its Agility Prime program, a collection of developers, communities, and events that aims to spearhead the development of personal eVTOL flying cars.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @01:59AM
They even infiltrated the USAF.
Fuck millenials.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:04AM (1 child)
A taxpayer funded scrap heap challenge. If the function were simply to take off we could forgive the poor form but we've already seen much better commercial eVTOL designs.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday August 26 2020, @12:31PM
It does not look as if it could do much else, except land. Where the hell is the "car" in that thing?
And what is it with the two clowns in the foreground of that picture? Apart from the fact that they look to have been Photoshopped into the picture, one looks like he has seen a mouse, and the other looks like he has seen God open a door in the clouds. Actually the "car" itself looks like it has been Photoshopped into the picture as well.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:05AM (5 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:27AM (4 children)
Well, this one is a target that can stay exposed longer, due to the redundancy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @04:18AM (3 children)
Ahhhh, redundancy. They carry extra pilots then!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday August 26 2020, @04:27AM (2 children)
No, just extra 6 rotors required for them to land safely; you see, equipment costs money. (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:27PM (1 child)
Huh. I thought they were to keep the pilot cool.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:59PM
Nope, they make it so ugly it flies - because even the ground is repelled by it.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:29AM (11 children)
The United States is getting its chili ring absolutely blown out by China in war games, and this is what they want to invest in?
Derpcopters?
No, the military needs to first identify the companies price-gouging it, and then switch to cheaper, more useful goods.
Not everything has to have an Android SoC in it for war! Just make cheap, sturdy weapons!
Focus more on rail guns and lasers, that's what we really need.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:46AM (6 children)
I see what you did her... oh, wait I don't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Wednesday August 26 2020, @06:18AM (5 children)
That shit can be made a hell of a lot cheaper than our military is currently getting billed for.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday August 26 2020, @08:17AM
> That shit can be made a hell of a lot cheaper than our military is currently getting billed for.
Last time I checked, that "shit" can't be made at all.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday August 26 2020, @09:32AM (3 children)
If you think a hypersonic railgun or a high powered laser turn cheaper than that gizmo, I have a couple of bridges to sell you for cheap. I'll even throw the Eiffel Tower in the bargain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Wednesday August 26 2020, @10:27AM (2 children)
We *know* it can be done much cheaper, because other nations, notably China, have done it.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday August 26 2020, @12:40PM
Then go make your hypersonic railgun in China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by nostyle on Wednesday August 26 2020, @03:29PM
As someone who has actually seen a hypersonic railgun fire, I can assure you that there are considerable challenges to making it a viable armament. The physical limitations are the same in every country, and there is no "cheap" way to overcome them. While the tech has been known about for decades, there are reasons you have yet to see them on a battlefield.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @03:00AM (3 children)
I'll stick with a jet belt (long range successor to Bell rocket belt), thank you very much. Already developed...and abandoned as mostly useless.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @04:20AM (2 children)
When the pilot's legs are trailing behind him, in the jet exhaust, he quickly decides that the jet is pretty much useless.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:53PM (1 child)
I wonder how the military's horse breeding programs are doing. Can their top secret horses go 100 kph yet? Heck of a cavalry charge if horses can go that fast.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @09:49PM
Horses come a hundred or two at a time...in a diesel engine that runs on the same jet fuel used by most military aircraft. Haven't you heard that oats have been deprecated?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:32AM (5 children)
What are they trying to hide?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:41AM (4 children)
Pardon? [youtube.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:55AM (3 children)
Yeah, searching "hexa" didn't offer much...
But, you get the unadulterated audio only for a brief instant at liftoff, then drowned out by the usual obnoxious music. Not satisfactory. They just won't give it up. Probably nobody wants to reveal how noisy these contraptions are.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday August 26 2020, @04:51AM (2 children)
Deafen the enemy?
Or make them laugh themselves to death?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday August 26 2020, @06:01AM
Actually I didn't realize the music came from the machine itself [youtube.com]
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday August 26 2020, @06:10PM
WWII tech. Monty Python [youtube.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by srobert on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:43AM (5 children)
We can't have medical insurance for all our citizens because "how you gonna pay for that?". But if you dare to question this expenditure the MIC will have you declared an enemy of the state.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by barbara hudson on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:59AM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @03:45AM
>He thinks intermediaries just disappear because he says so.
Consider that private care lobbyists and medicare lobbyists are just competing players on the same team, to mask the obscene profits that can be extracted, in all the ways possible.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday August 26 2020, @03:34AM (2 children)
You're having an election shortly and proper healthcare is not even part of the conversation.
It's almost like the people who really run your country don't want you to have it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday August 26 2020, @03:43AM
"Almost like" in this context... a good candidate for the understatement of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:30PM
I'd love to answer that question, but Trump just said something outrageous and all the front pages are taken. Sorry, try again tomorrow.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @05:34AM (2 children)
Looking at that picture, what they currently have is less of a flying car and more of a flying chair. One person, no cargo. Then again, the Air Force's nickname is Chair Force.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday August 26 2020, @10:26AM
When 99% of your fighting forces are robots operated remotely, a few (auto piloted) flying chairs that don't have enough of a heat signature for a target lock is all you really need to move around technicians and civilians.
Regardless, if you want the thing to be flyable in the city, you need it sufficiently quiet and self-balancing well enough to hold position in the air even when the weather isn't too good. But, only military contractors can develop VTOLs due to the classification of silent / not-as-loud rotor blades and motors (electric or otherwise), accelerometers and gyroscopes so you're either going to get it from a small military contractors, big military contractor or China.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Wednesday August 26 2020, @08:20PM
is what i thought.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 26 2020, @04:23PM
That looks a lot more like a segway and a drone had a child with gigantism. The only thing that has in common with a car is that it has 4 wheels and even then, there are cars with 3 wheels.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday August 26 2020, @06:31PM (2 children)
What's really excessive and dorky is how TFA (the first link) completely fills my browser window with stupendously gigantic Farcebook, Twatter, and Lumped In logos until I enable a cross-domain request to their CDN. I'm sorry but your site should not look that bizarrely awful when CSS is disabled. One common pattern used in web development is to load a stylesheet often named "reset.css" that's supposed to establish a common baseline of default styles so they're the same across all browsers. That doesn't sound like a bad idea in itself but the trouble is more often than not, those default styles are idiotic and make a page hideous and almost unreadable until you load all the other style sheets (or more commonly these days, enable their "responsive" Javascript). No CSS should make your document look worse than a browser default. That's insane.
I gave up even looking for the picture of the fucking flying car because I didn't want to enable anymore shitty scripts.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @06:52PM
It's a design flaw shared with many sites that I've seen. Gigantic logos or symbols as the fallback, and maybe you can scroll down past them to get to the content.
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Wednesday August 26 2020, @08:23PM
its even called thenextweb. I guess its training for your mouse scroll finger.
(Score: 2) by sonamchauhan on Wednesday August 26 2020, @11:26PM
That seems like a good design: robust and self righting, with the correct amount of redundancy when things (like bullets or branches) are thrown through the rotors or wheels (battery packs?).