This article is from WeChat official account:Xin Zhiyuan (ID: AI_era), author: white peak from FIG head: SkyDrive
In April this year, SkyDrive, a Japanese electric helicopter company, released a handsome photo. The company’s manned multi-rotor electric helicopter successfully flew. This is the first manned multi-rotor test flight in Japan.
The prototype of the SkyDrive that was tested in April was an 8-rotor coaxial aircraft. It can be seen that there is a small square cabin on the top, and there are some transparent plastic protective devices between the pilot and the engine.
The pilots flying SkyDrive almost do not need special training. Most of the flight control is done by the computer. The pilots only need a little bit, which is as simple as playing a flying game.
SD-03 took off with a shock, and no longer worry about “side parking”
Recently, Tokyo-based SkyDrive announced that the first public demonstration flight of the new and more agile SD-03 aircraft.
Let’s feel the powerful aura of SD-03 first!
This single-seater SD-03 electric helicopter is 2 meters high, 4 meters long, and 4 meters wide, which is roughly equivalent to the footprint of two cars. The appearance of pearl white is quite sporty, with fashionable H-shaped laser headlights in the front and red T-shaped lights in the taillights, which is full of technological sense.
The promotional videos are very good, how does it perform when flying? Will it be a PPT company?
Never! SkyDrive’s strength is quite good.
From a distance, the SD-03 is like an upgraded version of DJI, but with a person seated in it, 8 propellers were launched, and it successfully took off vertically!
It’s easy to change direction, just come to the side and turn around.
Students who have passed the driver’s license test are deeply impressed. The side parking in Subject 2 is a headache, and I think the car can have a lateral movement function.
If you fail the exam, you canTaking the future SD-03 into consideration, it will directly move laterally and reach the parking position in one step.
As you can see from the video, whether it is taking off or accelerating, the balance of SD-03 is well mastered.
After the parade, he returned to the apron smoothly.
The demonstration lasted about 4 minutes. For safety reasons, the flight speed control of SD-03 is relatively low. The current battery life can reach 30 minutes, and the commercial version will be longer in the future.
SkyDrive is not a completely start-up, there are Toyota genes behind it
SkyDrive is not a completely start-up company.
Now, Japan’s flying car industry seems to be dominated by CartivLeading by the company, Cartivator was established by Toyota with a 40 million yen (about 354,000 U.S. dollars) and began to mainly engage in air taxis. Split out SkyDrive.
SkyDrive began its manned flight test in December last year, and it continued until March this year. At that time, the SkyDrive team was pleased to announce that its “technical verification” phase had been completed, and the “controllability and flight stability” of the test aircraft had been verified.
This kind of vertical eVTOL has an advantage in traffic congested cities like Tokyo, but it has not yet reached the market standard.
In order to make passengers more comfortable, the design team designed a safety seat with excellent shock absorption. This seat is inspired by popular Japanese running shoes.
It can suppress the load on the passenger’s lumbar spine to a level much lower than that of ordinary aircraft seats. It can not only adjust the physical properties of the material, but also adjust the shape of the wave plate under the seat to maximize the shock absorption effect. it is good.
This wave plate design can perfectly balance cushioning and stability, can omit some traditional shock absorption components, and is lighter.
Another problem that needs to be solved is battery life. We know that Japan’s hydrogen energy technology is the world’s leading hydrogen fuel cell technology.Aviation will also surpass lithium-ion batteries, and will become a good choice for eVTOL in the future.
Regardless of tradition or tradition, playing “Flying” must reflect reality
In fact, SkyDrive is not the only company that makes flying cars. From traditional car manufacturers, to aircraft design companies, and even Internet companies like Google, they all want to get a share of the pie.
In May last year, Lilium GmbH, a German start-up led by Tencent, released the five-seater air taxi Lilium Jet developed by the company.
Lilium Jet is equipped with 36 fan engines, which are respectively mounted on 12 flaps that can be deflected by 90 degrees, which can take off and land vertically as well as taxi on the road.
The battery pack with an output power of 1 MW can continue flying for several hours, and Lilium Jet also has an autopilot function.
How could Google be absent in such a fun field.
The startup Kitty Hawk backed by Larry Page also launched the concept flying car Heaviside.
Heaviside is also pure electric, which can take off and land vertically(The cruising range is about 100 miles, about 160 kilometers), but its main function is Ultra-quiet, at a height of about 450 meters, a general helicopter has a loud noise of 60 decibels while Heaviside is only 40 decibels.
Last year, the “Pioneer Personal Land and Air Vehicle” developed by the Dutch PAL-V Automobile Company debuted in Miami, the United States. This flying car is equipped with a four-cylinder engine with a body made of carbon fiber and titanium aluminum alloy. It only takes a 160-meter runway to fly.
PAL-V can transform from a three-wheeled car to a rotorcraft in 10 minutes, and it can accelerate from 100 kilometers in 8 seconds. However, if you want to become a PAL-V pilot, you must have both a car driver’s license and a flight driver’s license. It will be launched on the market in 2021.
Finally, let’s take a look at a more cool “flying”.
This four-axis aircraft was designed by CityAirbus. Its ultimate goal is to achieve “Didi” in the air, allowing users to “fly” through the smartphone App.
According to the current design, it can carry 4 passengers and cruise at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour on a fixed route.
Big cities are becoming more and more congested, and the limited improvement measures for ground transportation are not obvious. With the increase in battery life and safety of these electric flying cars, flying will no longer be a dream.
Reference link:
https://newatlas.com/aircraft/sSydDive-sd-03-single-seat-evtol
https://www.thedrive.com/news/36076/they-keep-working-on-flying-cars-but-you-still-wont-own-one -any-time-soon/
This article is from WeChat official account:Xin Zhiyuan (ID: AI_era), Author: Bai