The future of GA?
It’s a drone that can carry “passengers”. It’s bound to happen in some way or another. Besides, MTOW < 450 kg (soon to be 540 for electric aircraft) how could anyone stop it from happening? If GA where to be developed from scratch today, this is very much what it would look like. A BRS, and I bet this thing is much safer than a Cirrus also.
LeSving wrote:
Besides, MTOW < 450 kg (soon to be 540 for electric aircraft) how could anyone stop it from happening?
Why should the MTOM be restricted for electric aircraft? Many electric aircraft are, in fact, heavier than that. (SolarImpulse, AEG Helicopter, E-Fan [barely], e-Genius, Antares, MB-E1, Centurion, Helios, Arcus-E…)
Anyways, flying in a uncontrollable thing is really not for me, let alone uncertified and possibly highly manipulable from the outside. Plus, it is a highly uneconomic toy with very few real application possibilities.
It has a 10 mile range….
mh wrote:
Anyways, flying in a uncontrollable thing is really not for me
That makes me ponder – once this becomes reality in real life (I personally don’t doubt it will), will pilots be the last ones to finally adopt it?
USFlyer wrote:
It has a 10 mile range….
It’s a prototype….
mh wrote:
Why should the MTOM be restricted for electric aircraft?
I was thinking about microlight. According to the spec, this will go as an electric microlight with none of the restrictions a normal aircraft has. I believe we will see things like this much sooner than most like to believe.
mh wrote:
Anyways, flying in a uncontrollable thing is really not for me, let alone uncertified and possibly highly manipulable from the outside. Plus, it is a highly uneconomic toy with very few real application possibilities.
They said the same about the iPhone. In my opinion this is in many ways an aircraft for people with no interest in aviation whatsoever. Still, I can see many uses for such a thing; rescue, getting around at hard to reach places and so on + cutting the grass becomes much more fun 
You don’t sit on your iPhone and let it fly you around, do you?
Do you think it’s a greater step for people to step into an unmanned aircraft than it was for people to step into an aircraft to begin with? That must have been a tough call for the first consumer passengers?
mh wrote:
You don’t sit on your iPhone and let it fly you around, do you?
No (my dislike for the iphone (or anything Mac or i) is too large ). I mean, even a no good salesman can simply slam some statistics showing the causes of fatalities for GA on the table, which will end all discussions about safety. Anyway, your objections was about the lack of utility and lack of manual control, and this is a typical objection to all new technology. An autonomous, pilot-less aerial vehicle carrying passengers. is as disruptive as it gets, and will create an economy on it’s own, just like the iPhone did. The old truths just stop existing.
Patrick wrote:
It’s a prototype….
It has a 10 mi range. The batteries needed to go further are too large and heavy. The plan if the device ever gets certified and to market is a VERY limited kind of inner-city building to building taxi at best….
I rarely travel more than 2 miles in a single trip – perhaps once or twice a month. Considering in addition that this is something you will hire rather than own, and is likely to be rather fun, and could have very low operating costs, I’m sure they’ll do well
In the UK, 66% of journeys are less than 5 miles and 95% are less than 25 miles*.
*https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/243957/nts2012-01.pdf
