DocM Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 (edited) ...Meet George Jetson... http://www.airbusgroup.com/int/en/news-media/corporate-magazine/Forum-88/My-Kind-Of-Flyover.html https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/18/airbus-reveals-ambitious-plan-for-autonomous-flying-taxis/ Quote Airbus reveals ambitious plan for autonomous flying taxis It plans to fly passengers with an electric, multi-rotor "CitiAirbus" drone. If a self-flying taxi scheme didn't come from the world's second largest aeronautical company, we might think it was a prank. However, Airbus appears to be serious about its "Vahana" project, aimed at creating an autonomous passenger drone network, and thinks testing can begin as early as 2017. That sounds ambitious, to say the least, but "many of the technologies needed, such as batteries, motors and avionics are most the way there," according to Airbus engineer Rodin Lyasoff. Users arriving at, say, an airport would book a seat on a so-called zenHop "CityAirbus" drone, then proceed to a "zenHub" helipad, according to the concept. They'd be flown to their destination for about the same cost as a taxi, since the ride would be shared by several passengers. Luggage would be delivered by another service (zenLuggage, of course), and the whole thing would be safeguarded from hackers by (wait for it) zenCyber. The company said that the CityAirbus multi-rotor, electric aircraft design has been "kept under wraps," though it did supply an artist's impression (above). The Airbus Helicopter subsidiary has been working on the drone-like design for two years, and it "could soon become reality without having to wait for too many regulatory changes," according to the press release. Airbus is also working on a drone delivery service (below) and plans to start testing it at a Singapore university by mid-2017. The cargo-laden vehicles fly automated routes in "aerial corridors," then drop them off and send delivery notifications to customers. The goal is to "potentially increase acceptance for passenger flight testing, thus giving a boost to urban air vehicle projects," according to the company. The idea of an electric passenger drone isn't new, as we've seen a prototype from Chinese firm EHang and a manned flight test from Volocopter. However, Airbus, with 55,000 workers and thousands of engineers, has a far more realistic shot at making it feasible. "Our group's strength is that we have interconnected projects that together are helping to drive the upcoming revolution," says developer Jörg Müller. The company has already done a study and concluded that the idea has merit. It would first launch the passenger service with pilots, then proceed to autonomous aircraft once regulations and certain technologies, like see-and-avoid, fall into place. While it sounds like our dreams of a Jetsons-like urban utopia are finally falling into place, we'll cling tightly to our skepticism until we see these taxis actually fly. Draggendrop, Emn1ty, FunkyMike and 1 other 4 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beittil Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 Smells like a publicity stunt to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Zagadka Subscriber² Posted August 19, 2016 Subscriber² Share Posted August 19, 2016 Um, yea, thanks but no thanks. I'll stick with my flying car, What a sexy beast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted August 19, 2016 Author Share Posted August 19, 2016 15 minutes ago, Beittil said: Smells like a publicity stunt to me... No publicity stunt. Flying drone taxis started a few years ago with a battlefield med-evac drone by the Israelies, then the bigs started going "hmmmm...." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Topham Hatt Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 Make it look like this, and I'm listening: Sszecret and Emn1ty 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draggendrop Veteran Posted August 20, 2016 Veteran Share Posted August 20, 2016 I was leaning towards this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted August 20, 2016 Author Share Posted August 20, 2016 Another big European example!e is MyCoper, which has some pretty large consortium members http://mycopter.eu The myCopter consortium consists of highly renowned experts in Europe from several fields: aerospace engineering and training, psychophysics, robotics, automation, and technology assessment. For the project activities, the consortium will make use of several simulators and test aerial vehicles: three ground-based simulators, small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and a full-scale manned helicopter, the DLR Flying Helicopter Simulator. These research assets represent flexible systems that have been successfully used to make progress in modelling the dynamics of aircrafts, pilot training, human-machine interface design, and automation algorithms. The practical connection between all partners will make the scientific advancements all the more impactful: handling qualities, human-machine interface design and automation can be integrated into all simulators and UAVs, and can then be tested from the perspectives of each of our scientific backgrounds. Most importantly, the scientific and technical advancements will also be considered from a social-technological perspective with interviews of both experts and novices in order to best inform the project. Partners Max-Planck-Institut für biologische Kybernetik The University of Liverpool École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich Karlsruher Institut für Technologie Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt Draggendrop 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draggendrop Veteran Posted August 20, 2016 Veteran Share Posted August 20, 2016 Now that would be a neat unit. DocM 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torolol Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 Quote autonomous passenger drone network how it works? and how it would defend themselves against jihad-drones that want to crash itself into the rotor blades? FunkyMike 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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