We have not been tracking the scary yet cool manned multicopter flight for a while. A year on, it has transitioned from an intimidating flying contraption into something a lot less scarier. However, it does not mean it is any less dangerous; it still is and so, unless you know what you are doing, do not attempt to do the same at home. Also, it has became a lot bigger. Instead of eight exposed rotors setup in a longish setup, it now takes on a quadcopter layout but instead of four motors, each quadrant has a whopping 19 Turnigy Multistar Elite 5010-274Kv outrunner motors. Continue reading Manned Flight Of A 76-Motor Multicopter Is Simply Mind-blowing
Category Archives: AIRCRAFT
Aircraft is basically all things that flies, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Toys & Hobbies not included.
The World’s Biggest Aircraft, Stratolaunch, Emerges From Hanger
If you don’t already know, co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen, has been involved in an interesting aerospace development. The company he is in, Stratolaunch Systems, has built an aircraft called the Stratolaunch Carrier Aircraft that is billed as the world’s biggest aircraft ever built. By the virtue of its non-swept wing wingspan that stretches a cool 385 feet (117 meters! That’s longer than an American Football field!), Stratolaunch’s air-launch platform out wingspan the largest commercial jet, the Airbus A380, which comes in at 80 meters and it even dethrone the previous biggest aircraft, the Hughes H-4 ‘Spruce Goose’ Hercules which has a wingspan of 97.5 meters. Continue reading The World’s Biggest Aircraft, Stratolaunch, Emerges From Hanger
This Is The First “Flying Car” By Larry Page-backed Startup, Kitty Hawk
Another day, another “flying car,” but like the Lilium Jet, this Alphabet’s CEO Larry Page-backed personal flight startup, Kitty Hawk’s first flyer is not quite a flying car. Sorry, I disagree with our source cos’ nowhere in the company’s website did it reference itself as a flying car startup. The Mountain View, California-based company’s mission is to, in its own words, “engineer, design and build safe, fun, easy-to-fly aircraft.” So flying car, it is obviously not. The notion of a flying car is a personal transportation device that flies, possibly at low altitude, and also have the ability to travel on normal roads and likely, can be parked within one’s garage, or any regular parking space. Continue reading This Is The First “Flying Car” By Larry Page-backed Startup, Kitty Hawk
All-electric 300mi Range VTOL “Flying Car” Made Successful Maiden Flight
Ok. The Lilium Jet Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft (VTOL) from Munich-based aviation company, Lilium Aviation, is not quite a flying car; rather, it is a full-fledged electric aircraft, or more specifically, an electric VTOL. Clearly, not the first (NASA was among the first, albeit in scaled form), but it is a baby step for mankind’s dream of an emission-free and possibly, autonomous, personal air transport. Then again, it isn’t the first to pitch the VTOL idea; we have seen a bunch of them and as far as autonomous goes, China’s EHang already have that covered. Continue reading All-electric 300mi Range VTOL “Flying Car” Made Successful Maiden Flight
Why Fold The Drone When It Can Be Made Inflatable? Yes, Seriously.
At this point, it is hard not to acknowledge that drone is perhaps the greatest creation in recent times. Thanks to its ability to vertical lift and hover, it has a lot more than capturing breathtaking aerial images. But regardless of its applications, all of them are plagued by the same flaws: breakage and water. And those are things that you do not want when you are surveying a disaster zone, inspecting a structure et cetera. While some may opt to ruggedized the unit, but to be honest, whenever a hard material goes head-on with another hard material, it is never a good news and that’s not to mention that drone will drow when it hits a waterbody. Continue reading Why Fold The Drone When It Can Be Made Inflatable? Yes, Seriously.
Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Drones Can Plan And Execute Missions On Its Own
While program is on track to extend the service life of the nearly four-decade old F-16 Fighting Falcon, Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks has been working with U.S.A.F. to lend unmanned capability to this dynamic multirole fighter aircraft. While F-16 drones are not the newest news – they has been used as targets for F-35s previously – it is, however, a news that it can now think and act on its own (which made me kind of go ‘yikes’). This means that this pilot-less fighter jet is capable of executing air-to-ground strike missions autonomously while reacting to contingencies and threats along the way before getting back to complete its objective. Continue reading Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Drones Can Plan And Execute Missions On Its Own
DHL’s Third Parcelcopter Is Tilt-rotor, Docks At Special Packstations
Remember the DHL Parcelcopter 2.0? Yeah. That drone that was trialled for delivery of medicine to Island of Juist in 2014. Well, as it turns out. DHL has made a lot of headway into autonomous delivery since then. In early 2016, DHL has already trialling the third iteration of the Parcelcopter, the Parcelcopter 3.0, but instead of over waters, it now flies within the mountainous region of Reit Im Winkl and it was quadcopter no more. Parcelcopter 3.0, as you can see in the image above, is a tilt rotor VTOL drone much like the V-22 Osprey. Continue reading DHL’s Third Parcelcopter Is Tilt-rotor, Docks At Special Packstations
Meet The FCX-001, Bell’s Radical Take On The Future Of Helicopters
Since the invention of helicopter, the concept behind this vertical lift flying machine hasn’t changed much and that’s probably because the inner workings of such machines are crazy complex and any attempt to tweak a part or component may set off a chain of changes which are both costly and time consuming. But it looks like Bell Helicopter thought reinventing the wheel is nigh. Earlier last month at the HELI-EXPO 2017 in Dallas, the Textron Inc. company has let the world in on the company’s vision of the future of vertical lift aircraft which will also serve as the 3-D roadmap for delivering safer, smarter and more efficient rotorcraft solutions, said Bell. Continue reading Meet The FCX-001, Bell’s Radical Take On The Future Of Helicopters
This Drone Will Deliver Supplies For Humanitarian Aids And Never Return
Drone technology has come a long way. Its birth is not with controversy, but then it goes beyond military to empower everyday people with ability to do aerial imaging, land surveying, inspect building, and even burning trash. Now, a San Francisco robotics company, Otherlab, is taking drone technology to another level of goodness. With the funding from DARPA, the company has developed a disposal drone that’s designed to deliver supplies to disaster zones and for humanitarian aids. The origami-style cardboard drone has minimal electronics; it has just a GPS module which works to steer a pair of motors on the wing-style drone to its destination. Continue reading This Drone Will Deliver Supplies For Humanitarian Aids And Never Return
Startup Has Bold Plan To Build Boeing 777-sized Cargo Delivery Drones
Natilus, a California-based startup, has an ambitious vision: cargo delivery using drone. Wait, what? This is not even news, right? Right, except that Natilus is more ambitious then a using a puny multicopter; the company wants to build a Boeing 777-sized drone that will fly itself from point A and point B to delivery 200,000 pounds of goods. And it is not even looking at airport to drop its stuff; the company envision Natilus unmanned air freight drone to take off and land on the water, and unload the cargo at seaside ports. What Natilus proposed is pretty much a regular air freighter, less the pilot and the crew, and also, it will travel at a slower pace than a regular commercial aircraft and at altitude lower (but still fuel efficient) than that of commercial jets. Continue reading Startup Has Bold Plan To Build Boeing 777-sized Cargo Delivery Drones