Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday April 14 2020, @03:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the flappy-burred dept.

New Atlas:

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Tuesday April 14 2020, @11:44AM (1 child)

    by Muad'Dave (1413) on Tuesday April 14 2020, @11:44AM (#982523)

    In looking at the video, where does the high pressure come from on the flapping wing? If you watch, as it completes a 'compression' flap, the air on the other side of the flap magically goes from green to red; low to high pressure. How does that work?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday April 14 2020, @02:35PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday April 14 2020, @02:35PM (#982590)

    As soon as the flap changes direction,it starts generating compression on the new "shrinking" side. Of course, halfway through that stroke (when the flapper is horizontal) the compression should start pushing air backwards(left) instead of forwards.

    My question is, why does the low-pressure blue region behind the flapper expand into the high-pressure red region? Yeah, the air will have some momentum, but I would think very little since the flapper is mostly pushing air up and down, rather than to the right. It seems almost as though the simulation is in the presence of an already-moving air stream. Which might still be relevant for the second "thrust wing" arrangement rendered further down the page, but wouldn't be at all relevant for the "suspension plate" arrangement in the first render.