At 06:27 AM 28/02/2013, you wrote:
Hi Mike!
You failed to mention that even the Sparrowhawk fuselage is a pretty good
copy of the ASW and ASG series of sailplanes.
I'm sure Greg Cole, the designer of the Sparrowhawk and Duckhawk,
would disagree.
I've seen a Sparrowhawk up close (lifted it off the ground actually)
and I don't see the resemblance apart from a cockpit big enough for a
pilot and a pod and boom design.
The canopy design is different also.
To the general public all these white things with wings look the
same. The differences are minor and subtle.
For Gary, multiple motors is a feature not a bug. You can lose one or
two without problems. That thing has 10% installed power over the
rated max. A quad redundant autopilot system should occupy a cube
50mm on a side and you really in the hover just control motor power.
The motors are 10KW and will be 3 phase AC outrunners where the coils
are stationary in the middle of the motor and there are no brushes.
Think jet reliability but without the high temperatures which should
make them even better. I bet it has a ballistic parachute too as well
as being able to land like a glider. Not too shabby. Note that you
aren't in VTOL mode for very long. It isn't a helicopter designed to
sometimes carry underslung loads etc or rescue people from the ocean
or clearings in the trees.
Range extenders like small gas turbines are under serious
consideration for hybrid cars. I know some people in the UK working
on a 100mm diameter axial flow turbine for this. While I don't have
much time for hybrid or all electric cars, electric propulsion makes
sense for unusual air vehicles like this and the e-volo machine
because you can easily distribute the propulsion into many multiple
redundant modules. Hard to do any other way.
It is about time these things came along. Helicopters are
recognisably the same as what Igor Sikorsky sucessfully flew in 1939
or so and small light aircraft are still using direct drive air
cooled engines, stressed skin construction, i.e DC-1 technology from
nearly 80 years ago.
Mike
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