What's wrong with the prop-powered, drone-style VTOL flying car designs we're seeing all over the place? Ignoring the energy density issues that are holding the entire electric aviation industry back, multirotors are quite noisy, and they have basically no adequate safety systems in place if the power systems fail.
A somewhat mysterious startup called Volerian claims to have a solution for both these points, and it uses a very odd propulsion system we've never run across before.
The system places a large number of flapping wings inside a series of precisely shaped ducts. The wings are driven by cams on a rotating shaft, such that they flap back and forth quickly between the walls of these ducts, much like the tails of fish. A second fixed "stator" wing is mounted further down the ducts "to further increase efficiency," presumably by messing with the swirling pressure vortices created by the flapping wings.
The company claims its furious flappers not only make less noise than a comparable multirotor setup, but that the system is safer as well. In the event of power loss, the wings can be released to flutter against the airstream coming up through the bottom of the vents as the aircraft falls, acting a bit like a parachute. Not to mention, there's no rotating decapitators in the system to worry about.
New Atlas's current issue highlights half a dozen startups that are hoping to make air taxis a reality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:00AM
Don't get out that much any more, what with the quarantine, and the general historical ignorance of the millennial generation.
"Oh, look, Push button transmission in car! Never seen that before!"
Really [wikipedia.org]? before your grandfather was born, now get off my lawn! It's a vintage 1963 lawn! Do you know how much that is worth in 2056 dollars?