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Coupers, Interesting design but still impractical.
Also can you imagine what the vertical fins would look like after sucking up
rocks or debris. It appears to be subject to rollover in moderate winds if the
wings are left in the vertical position. Just throwing this out to stimulate
some though. Dick L. N3041H
----- Original Message -----From: SusanTo: Ercoupers FlyinSent: Monday, February 20, 2006 3:30 AMSubject: [COUPERS-TECH] Hi Coupers - Check out MIT's latest version of the Ercoupe (sorta)==============================================================================
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Apparently MIT has designed sort of a modern version of an Ercoupe, according to this morning's AvFlash newsletter.
Enjoy!
Susan
N2141H
AvFlash Newsletter website for today's newsletter in full:
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/580-full.html#191607
http://www.terrafugia.com/vehicle_movie.htm
MIT Sets Its Mind(s) To Roadable Aircraft
A trio of Massachusetts Institute of Technology grads is determined to create something that has so far eluded both the aviation and automotive industry and their idea seems to be carrying a fair bit of weight in academic circles. An outside panel of scientists and technologists have awarded Carl Dietrich the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for, among other inventions (like a desktop fusion reactor and a lower-cost rocket engine), a "flying SUV" he calls Transition. And with help from fellow brainiacs Samuel Schweighart and Anna Mracek, the apparently undisputed genius has formed a company called Terrafugia (terra means earth, fugia means escape) and hopes to have something to show us at this year's EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh. All three members of the team are pilots and admit to some self-indulgence in their choice of school projects. "We want this thing as soon as possible, because we want to use it," Mracek told the MIT publication The Tech. And the trio is only a little modest about the impact its craft might have. "We're not going for a radical transformation to just throw society into 'The Jetsons,'" said Mracek. "[But] if this is the commercial reality we think it can be, changes will occur in the world."
Brimming With Confidence
The MIT group deals with the snide remarks, knowing smiles and barely concealed giggles with a single line on its Web site: "Why will Terrafugia succeed where so many others have failed?" the group asks rhetorically. Given the source, the answer might be obvious. In a word, it's engineering. The trio says it's taking an engineering approach to the project. What they've come up with is a two-place vehicle with an airplane-like fuselage and fold-out wings. It will have a 100-hp engine driving a tail-mounted pusher prop and weigh in at 1,320 pounds, qualifying it for light sport aircraft (LSA) status. In fact, Dietrich says, the no-medical, low-cost Sport Pilot certificate option was a major factor in the decision to design the drive-to-the-airport-and-fly-away machine. It's that last little bit that allows the MIT group to avoid a rat's nest of engineering hurdles by sidestepping what has often been the major impetus behind flying cars. Rather than take off from the driveway and soar over the stressed-out commuters below, Transition will join them on the freeway on its way to the airport. Once on the ramp, the wings will fold out and head for the runway like any other plane. Not much detail is available on the way it all comes together but presumably it will be fleshed out a little more in time for Oshkosh. In the meantime, Merton Flemings, who's taught engineering and materials science at MIT for 50 years, says Dietrich's plan is the real deal. "With the advent of new materials and new engines and this innovative design, he's got a chance to make it work," Flemings said. "I think the time has come."
As The Flying Motorcycle Plans Sun 'n Fun Splash
While the MIT folks go straight to their ultimate creation, Larry Neal, of Butterfly LLC in Bridgeport, Texas, is taking the launch of his combination of a three-wheeled motorcycle and gyrocopter in a more methodical way. Neal's friend John Frena, who's trying to turn up the hype while Neal keeps his nose to the grindstone, says the Flying Motorcycle is less than a month from becoming fully functional in the air and on the ground and will demonstrate both capabilities at Lakeland. As AVweb told you last week, the Flying Motorcycle has already flown for local TV cameras. Frena said the single-seat Flying Motorcycle is designed as a commuter vehicle. The owner has but to drive (ride?) to the nearest clear patch 200 feet long and he or she can take off into the (so far) uncluttered air. As Neal finishes off the Flying Motorcycle, work continues on the two-place version, which Frena claims has more creature comforts. It won't be ready for Sun 'n Fun.
And now, for your laugh to start the day, today's very funny Short Final (always at the end of Monday's AvFlash):
Short Final...
While doing some work, heard the following exchange on Kennedy Tower freq:
Twr: Cactus 51, turn right zulu and golf, hold behind the plane that's stopped to recycle.
Cactus 51: Cactus 51 we'll make the right zulu and golf, behind the recycled airplane ... whatever that means.
Trw: C'mon Cactus, you guys should know what that means, you fly Airbus' -- it's when the screens go blank and you have to restart them all.
Cactus 51: Oh, yeah, we know about that. We just thought it was 'cause we were out of quarters.
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"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." - Francis of Assisi
"It is much better to live in a world that you have participated in defining, than in one that has been defined for you." - Susan Horton
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
"As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time, at peril of being judged not to have lived." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
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