Free Flight, Free Speech

"Ehang CEO Huazhi Hu began designing the one-seater electric drone a couple of years ago, after two of his pilot friends were killed in plane crashes. He decided that people needed a form of short-to-medium-distance personal air transport that didn't require them to have a pilot's license, and that took much of the danger out of low-altitude flight."

I'm still not getting in that high CG, death trap with no-rotor protection and parachute safety, but hey, it's a start...

http://www.gizmag.com/ehang-184-aav-passenger-drone/41213/

So not flying in that.
Has he all his cups in the cabinet?!

legoboyvdlp wrote:Has he all his cups in the cabinet?!

I'm not familiar with that phrase - do you mean is he sane?

You'd have to remember though, China is much like USA was in the 40s-50s.. they don't have too much regulation or control to experiment with things, plus have the resources to experiment. This is a prototype that will lead to something very soon. Their engineering is pretty good now too. Whether it is good or bad, the world will be judge of that soon..

After all, what's really left is pretty much just some safety devices (ie parachutes, motor-out compensation etc), maybe move the props to the top, and most complicated of all, the development of batteries and how to deal with airspace around them and all the regulations. The last two will be major hurdles.

Exactly; it is a variation of a German saying.
Lost yer marables, mate?

That thing just plain scares me.

An inverted helicopter. True warranty to not survive an accident

I saw the "hoverboard" but didn't know about the Volocopter.

Seems to me the Volocopter is much more survivable design in that it has more props to keep it in the air should one fail, and the CoG is a logical one. The Chinese Ehang has the much better compactness of the two. Something of a cross in between the two designs should be optimal...

autonomous [/shudder]