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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: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday April 14 2020, @02:10PM
Different mechanism, completely different motion. A flying vehicle which generates thrust by flapping its wings like a bird is known as an ornithopter, and while the fluid dynamics are complex enough that we can't yet accurately simulate them, it's generally believed that the process is most efficient at small sizes, and doesn't scale up well.