Delorean Aerospace (yes really)

[Soleair]

The future is here, folks. . .

 

DeLorean Aerospace DR-7 VTOL Aircraft

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Free boot full of cocaine with every purchase.

 

 

[Oscar]

And a new, more efficient Flux Capacitor.

 

 

[onetrack]

Courtesy of Paul DeLorean, nephew of the famous (or infamous, if you prefer) John DeLorean.

 

Paul worked at Mattel for a couple of years and designed around 10 to 15 of the "Hot Wheels" die-cast toy vehicles. He'd previously spent 4 years as a designer at GM.

 

He cranked up DeLorean Aerospace in 2012. Not sure where the $$$'s are coming from, but it doesn't appear that the company is a public company, so he must be funding it privately.

 

Whether he can get this thing to actually work, is going to be very dependent on much-improved battery technology, IMO.

 

DeLorean (Aerospace) Is Making a Flying Car That Really Won't Need Roads

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Not sure where the $$$'s are coming from,

What, a computer, some rendering software and a website?

 

 

[turboplanner]

What, a computer, some rendering software and a website?

Exactly; the people of Melbourne were informed recently that we were to get Uber flying cars in the near future, and a suitable rendering was produced to prove it.

None of these people appear to understand the complexity of out airspace over cities now, let alone the mayhem of people taking off from every suburb to travel to every suburb.

 

 

[onetrack]

What, a computer, some rendering software and a website?

Well you gotta start somewhere - what would you prefer? Some plans drawn in chalk on the powerhouse floor, along with a completely-finished, fully-operational model - in the first month?

 

None of these people appear to understand the complexity of out airspace over cities now, let alone the mayhem of people taking off from every suburb to travel to every suburb.

What we are failing to grasp, is that the rapidly-maturing technology that is going to see driverless cars occupy the major portion of the vehicle market within 15 years is fully transferable to the skies.

Ford have stated bluntly that they have the ability to produce all of their vehicle range as driverless models - the only thing stopping them is buyer resistance, and the additional road infrastructure requirements.

 

When you watch an entire fleet of driverless massive dump trucks and associated huge excavators, carrying out a complete mining operation - excavation and dumping of waste, and then excavation and delivery of high-grade ore - mined more precisely and accurately than the best human operators could ever do - then watch that ore being delivered to port, 30,000 tonnes at a time, by huge, multi-locomotive driverless ore trains - and all overseen from a couple of thousand kilometres away by just a handful of computer operators - then you rapidly come to the conclusion that we are moving at an astonishing pace into what one would perceive, only 3 decades ago, as a "futuristic", "Jetsons-style" world.

 

A world where electronic processors, sensors, AI, cameras, and even robots, will all come together in a stunning combination, that will eliminate error in mechanisation and control processes, to a level of a 1 in 100 billion chance - and which combination will eliminate 99% of human input into moving hundreds of thousands of aircraft through the sky hourly, with no fear of collision. It's a brave new world, but its coming faster than we ever anticipated.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

...None of these people appear to understand the complexity of out airspace over cities now, let alone the mayhem of people taking off from every suburb to travel to every suburb.

It's alright, Turbs. Once the Artificial Intelligence bods have perfected self driving cars they'll need some gainful employment.

 

 

[Yenn]

Once the experts have got every industrial action computerised and working without human input, drivers etc. We won't need pilotless planes. nobody will be earning enough to fly with the airlines or privately. Unless they are a Clive Palmer type.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Once the experts have got every industrial action computerised and working without human input, drivers etc.

30% of current jobs gone by 2030 is the prediction.

 

Not sure what's going to happen with 50% real unemployment.

 

 

[onetrack]

Visit Europe and see what it looks like - Spain and Greece - and South Africa. After the GFC, when the European economic crisis really peaked (around 2012/2013), the youth Unemployment Rate hit over 40%, the general unemployment rate hit more than 25%. It's only improved a relatively small amount since, I think Spains overall UR is down to 18%, Greeces is still around 22-23%. South Africa is pretty much a basket case, with over 27% UR.

 

There's a sense of total despair amongst those with no job, and no hope of a job. You find them selling trinkets at popular tourist spots to try and survive.

 

You're stuck on the motorway in a total gridlock traffic jam, and these people suddenly appear, walking between the cars, selling bottles of water, cans of soft drink and boxes of tissues.

 

They even set up little retail stalls made out of scrap materials along the roads and motorways.

 

A lot of the women sell their bodies, every second roundabout in Spain has a prostitute standing by the exit, waving and smiling at potential clients. Some even set up chairs there.

 

If they find a job advertised, it's a menial service-type job - if they can be found at all.

 

I can recall reading an Australian professors commencement of his Thesis, online, about 20 years ago. From memory his name was Jeff Marks, but don't quote me on that, my memory isn't what it used to be.

 

Jeff's thesis was about the transport industry, and trucking in particular. It was written particularly from the point of view of a study of VD movement through society, especially in relation to trucking.

 

Jeff went to the U.S. and became a long-haul truck driver, just to immerse himself in the industry, and gain insight, and 100% clarity in information, as to how the entire U.S. long-haul industry operated.

 

His story was quite rivetting - he wrote a no-holds-barred, "inside" story of long-haul trucking in the U.S., written in the first person. He wrote about the ruthless dispatchers, the fight for work, and survival in the huge U.S. transport industry.

 

One eye-opening chapter revealed how, whenever he got a load, he had to organise his own unloading. In the U.S., in that era, they used one-piece, fully-enclosed aluminium dry freight van trailers almost exclusively, on the work he was doing.

 

As I understood it, Jeff was mostly hauling foodstuffs and boxed freight, that wasn't palletised. I believe avoiding the use of pallets in the trailer, increased the carrying capacity of the trailer.

 

These trailers of Jeffs were loaded and unloaded manually, unlike our "curtainsider" system here in Oz, where forklifts load and unload the goods directly from each side.

 

The Americans used only cardboard "slippers" under some heavier freight items, and these were physically dragged out of the trailer, just sliding them along the trailer floor.

 

At every freight depot where Jeff had to unload, he'd back up to the ramp, and there'd be a gang of blokes waiting to "bid" on unloading his trailer.

 

These blokes were just effectively contract unloaders - but with no job security whatsoever. They got work according to how fast they could work, and for how little.

 

Jeff would have to pick out a number of blokes from these work gangs, who were all offering their services, and jostling each other, and offering lower prices to get the work unloading the trailer.

 

Once he picked the blokes he wanted, they agreed on a price, and Jeff paid them in cash and they set to, unloading the trailer.

 

Slow unloading or rough freight handling meant the blokes got short shrift next time. It was obviously a dog-eat-dog existence, the lowest bidder got to eat, essentially.

 

I was quite appalled when I read about this system - but it sounded to me, pretty typical of the harsh treatment as regards many uneducated American employees. No job security, no holidays, no benefits - and work for a pittance.

 

You've probably seen the same thing in many airports in the poorer countries. You walk out of the terminal, and the crush of menial-job workers, begging to get your suitcase carrying, your taxi fare, your accommodation, is staggering.

 

I would hope we never end up the same way as many of the poorer countries, a dog-eat-dog existence. Unfortunately, I'm not so sure that we're not heading the same way as they are.

 

 

[turboplanner]

We criticise Australian Politicians, but the major parties have ensured low unemployment in Australia for nearly half a century

 

Over the years we've re-tasked tallow processors, milkmen, nightmen, shearers, wool processors, garment makers, navvies, wharfies, steelworkers, grape pickers, train shunters, car builders, milk bar owners, fruiterers, butchers and a whole lot of other professions.

 

We have built service industries like home stays, coffee shops, theme parks, and have made ourselves one of the key tourism countries in the world. We've been lucky enough to have entrepreneurs smart enough to set up mineral and coal mining in areas once considered to be remote and non- productive.

 

Where we may be heading is away from privately owned farm land.

 

 

[hihosland]

Turbo comments that Where we may be heading is away from privately owned farm land.

 

A process that is well under way as the farm gate prices contract and capital required to produce competitively increases almost exponentially. Two forces that are squeezing out the one family farm.

 

The corporatisation of agriculture is well underway most noticible in horticulture, broad acre grain and large pastoral stations. Next will be the aggregation of small dairy producers into the mega units seen in Wisconsin

 

 

[onetrack]

One of the greatest concerns is the serious reduction in the amount of people with the high-tech skills to repair equipment. Every single manufactured item is being dumbed down, to need no repair, and therefore no-one is needed with repair qualifications.

 

Any components that are repairable are nearly always slip-fit, complete component replacements, or maybe just a handful of fasteners. Machinists/Fitter-and-Turners are now relegated to button pressing and card-insertion on CNC equipment.

 

Mechanics are now relegated to hooking up the diagnostic computer and reading the codes and replacing the entire component.

 

No more intensive repair training or diagnostic ability - and it won't be long before the entire power unit comes in a sealed box, which slips in like a battery.

 

In fact, batteries and electrics and electronics will rule every waking minute of our lives. I can see the day coming, when kids inquire what an IC engine was.

 

Machinery operators no longer need machine-control skills. They operate the machine according to what the laser levelling equipment tells them.

 

Surveying is on a par. No more intensive maths education, notebooks, or ground slog. Laser equipment, satellites and computerisation does it all for them.

 

The talk is even doctors and lawyers will be out of a job. Already, computer-controlled laser equipment carries out intricate surgical operations where a shaky human hand has trouble operating. Keyhole surgery is already a reality.

 

AI is the frightening advance. Robots that can learn, self-diagnose, and self-repair. No longer will the best legal brains be needed to sort out complex decisions, AI will do it in milliseconds, with the ability to reference every legal decision ever made, and with the ability to reference every piece of legislation ever produced.

 

No doubt the entertainment industries will continue to thrive and grow, the unemployed masses will need something to keep them occupied.

 

I have read discussions where proponents of a "social wage" are pushing for its eventual introduction - where everyone gets paid a certain "adequate" base amount, from Govts, to be able to live and purchase essentials.

 

The Nordic and Scandinavian countries are already virtually at the stage of "cradle-to-grave" social security, but this is funded partly by huge taxes on virtually everything, particularly wages and salaries.

 

The concept of a National Sovereign Wealth Fund (such as Norways Oil Fund) is good - a national wealth fund, funded by national production profits.

 

However, our politicians are all too ready to hand over our national production wealth to multi-nationals and global multi-millionaires and billionaires.

 

We are giving away our minerals and energy resources at an alarming rate, with little benefit to the nation, but plenty of benefit to people who don't need more wealth than their already-staggering wealth.

 

Our inventiveness is our greatest resource, but we have politicians who prefer to cut funding to R&D, cut funding to the CSIRO, and give no encouragement to inventors, or their inventions.

 

We run a massive Australian economy with no long-term plans, no integration, decisions based on favours to political "mates", and important decisions based on vote-buying.

 

As a mate says, "Our pollies economic management abilities are such, they'd go broke, running a sweets shop outside a girls school".

 

 

[Mike Borgelt]

Back on track. The only doubt about the Delorean design is roll control and stability. I'd think two fans at the back would be better.

 

Battery tech is such that for just takeoff and landing, a small two seat VTOL aircraft is possible. Cruise power should be an IC engine though to get range and speed. VTOL means much smaller wings can be used with lower drag and lower structure weight. Landing gear can be much lighter also.

 

I'm looking forward to the first homebuilt VTOL kit. Take a look at this website: The Electric VTOL News

 

 

[APenNameAndThatA]

The Moller Sky Car lives again

 

 

[Mike Borgelt]

The Sky Car concept was fine but with IC engines it got complicated in order to deal with the engine out case in vertical mode. Same as a V22 Osprey. Electric vertical mode makes these problems manageable as eVTOL news shows. A gazillion quadcopter drones can't be wrong. It would be interesting to know the one engine out failure rate of the small quadcopters.

 

 

[onetrack]

I'd have to guess wedgetail eagles would be the major reason for engine-outs on drones. Electric motors are pretty reliable, it's generally only failing bearings that make them stop.

 

 

[APenNameAndThatA]

The Sky Car concept was fine but with IC engines it got complicated in order to deal with the engine out case in vertical mode. Same as a V22 Osprey. Electric vertical mode makes these problems manageable as eVTOL news shows. A gazillion quadcopter drones can't be wrong. It would be interesting to know the one engine out failure rate of the small quadcopters.

Are you telling me that the Moller Sky Car ever flew more than a few feet off the ground? I thought reliability of the engines was the least of its problems.

 

 

[onetrack]

Give Paul Moller a chance! He's only been designing his Sky Car for 50 years! He'll get it right, with just another 50 years!

 

Interesting to see the TX attorneys approach to Mollers fund-raising claims and designs.

 

Quote from Moller - "Mr. X (the TX attorney) was convinced that raising money to develop such a fanciful vehicle must involve fraud."

 

SOMI 2013 - Stock Holders of Moller International

 

Unless Moller can produce some previously unknown or undiscovered technology, along with a leprechauns pot of gold, I reckon Mr X is probably not too far off the mark.

 

Kind of like the TIGAR search for Amelia Earhart. Every couple of years they find "stunning new evidence", that requires more search funding.

 

I've seen any amount of directors of gold-mining companies live the good life - plush offices, new Beemers, luxury corporate yachts, eye-watering salaries - on regular reports of an "exciting new gold discovery" on their leases.

 

The eventual reporting of failures to find actual, mineable gold, failure to find Amelia Earharts remains, or failure to sight a production Moller Sky Car, is usually relegated to a paragraph in the minor news of some unknown publication or website.

 

 

[Mike Borgelt]

Are you telling me that the Moller Sky Car ever flew more than a few feet off the ground? I thought reliability of the engines was the least of its problems.

I don't see anything wrong with the Skycar concept. The problem is 8 x IC engines and associated systems. Electric is much easier. The Skycar concept was born before lithium batteries and brushless DC motors.

 

 

[APenNameAndThatA]

I don't see anything wrong with the Skycar concept. The problem is 8 x IC engines and associated systems. Electric is much easier. The Skycar concept was born before lithium batteries and brushless DC motors.

Perhaps you'd like to invest? He might choose to swap to electric now that he's cut his teeth on IC engines.

 

The big problem that I see with the Skycar concept is that it can't fly.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

The Skycar concept was born before lithium batteries and brushless DC motors.

The Investors are much younger, they were born yesterday.

 

 

[Mike Borgelt]

So go look at the Lilium story on the home page. It does fly.

 

 

[Birdseye]

"the DR-7 is built like a formula one race car"

 

And at twice the price?