Suddenly, we’re seeing new electric aircraft nudging, then doubling an electric distance record. First, Autoflight in China and then Beta in America achieve higher ranges than that previously achieved by Joby. Jules Verne Saw It Coming In two late 19th-century novels, Robur the Conqueror and Master of the World, Jules Verne chronicled the fictional adventurers of a mad inventor who thought he could dissuade world leaders from practicing war by bombing them from his Albatross flying warship. A great deal like Captain Nemo of Nautilus fame, Robur uses violence to stop violence. Both protagonists fail in their efforts. The Albatross, mistaken as its objectives were, is perhaps an inspiration for today’s eVTOLs, propellers spinning for lift and for forward motion. Verne even prophesied fueling the Albatross with water, perhaps an early vision of today’s water-splitting to produce green hydrogen. Autoflight With far fewer rotors and propellers, Autoflight achieved a successful transition flight from vertical liftoff to forward flight. This delicate …
Unique, From A (for Aerodynamics) to Zee
Ilan Kroo, according to his biography page, is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, an advanced cross-country hang glider pilot, and designer of the Swift flying wing hang glider, unmanned aerial vehicles, a flying Pterosaur replica, America’s Cup sailboats, and high-speed research aircraft. Currently on a leave of absence from Stanford, he has started Zee Aero, “a bay area start-up company focusing on bringing new technologies to civil aircraft.” Zee Aero, on its first of five sparse web pages, proclaims, “We’re creating an entirely new aircraft,” a heady claim considering the lack of supporting descriptions or illustrations. But other sources have been made available, including Zee’s patent applications, which show a slim tricycle-gear fuselage surmounted by variously drawn structures holding eight upward-facing propellers and two propellers in the tail, apparently to push the whole assembly along. KGO television sent a news crew to Zee’s Mountain View headquarters, and broadcast nice views of the secure building in which …
Czechoslovakian Flying Bike – ET, Here We Come
The dream of flying a bicycle is older than the special effects magic of ET, harking back to the aviettes of turn-of-the-20th century France and the works of Jules Verne and Czech writer Jaroslav Foglar. A Czech design team may soon make this fantasy more believable. Technodat, a Czechoslovakian CAD developer; Evektor, designer and manufacturer of light sport and general aviation aircraft; and Duratec, a bicycle and bike supplies firm, have consolidated efforts with Dassault Systémes and CAXMIX – both partners providing software platforms, to make this long-sought dream a reality. Their so-far virtual reality is the FBike, a velocipede with six propellers that can make brief hops off the ground and stabilize itself in all three axes while in flight. First tests of the actual machine are due in August, and it will be seen whether it can jump over traffic and make its way in a third dimension. The makers are doing this as a proof of concept, …