Saw my first eVTOL

Ed Haywood

Ed Haywood

Final Approach
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Jul 12, 2020
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Tampa FL
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Ed
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FD77
I was standing on a 3rd floor balcony overlooking a river channel when an oblong object passed by at eye level.

Turns out this is what I saw:

www.fox13news.com

'Flying car' takes to the air in Tampa. Here's when you can see it

During Special Operations Forces Week in Tampa, people can catch all kinds of impressive aerial demonstrations near the convention center in Downtown Tampa. But one sight that's been quite a jaw-dropper is what's being called a "flying car."
www.fox13news.com www.fox13news.com

It was crazy quiet. It was maybe 50 yards away from a crowded outdoor party and most people did not even notice it.

I should see it again tomorrow. I'll try to post some pictures.
 
Interesting. I watched a video on I think probably the same vehicle - it tilts at crazy angles to get away from having to require heavy landing gear.
 
@Velocity173, I believe you are correct. I forgot that it was SOF Week. Going to be lots of exciting things happening in Tampa this week.
 
Ed Haywood said:
I was standing on a 3rd floor balcony overlooking a river channel when an oblong object passed by at eye level.

Turns out this is what I saw:

www.fox13news.com

'Flying car' takes to the air in Tampa. Here's when you can see it

During Special Operations Forces Week in Tampa, people can catch all kinds of impressive aerial demonstrations near the convention center in Downtown Tampa. But one sight that's been quite a jaw-dropper is what's being called a "flying car."
www.fox13news.com www.fox13news.com

It was crazy quiet. It was maybe 50 yards away from a crowded outdoor party and most people did not even notice it.

I should see it again tomorrow. I'll try to post some pictures.
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They've flown it several times at osh. Looked pretty sketchy to me. Useful load is something like 180lb iirc. I believe they're even pt103.
 
My son took this photo today.

After seeing one in action, I have a better appreciation for how they can operate in places that a helicopter would not. It is orders of magnitude quieter. It was flying for several hours within 100 yards of us and I never heard a sound. I don't think the person in the photo even notices it.

IMG_20250507_220200.jpg
 
Ed Haywood said:
My son took this photo today.

After seeing one in action, I have a better appreciation for how they can operate in places that a helicopter would not. It is orders of magnitude quieter. It was flying for several hours within 100 yards of us and I never heard a sound. I don't think the person in the photo even notices it.

View attachment 140841
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Remember, it's under 500 lbs all up. Helicopters, and the proposed 4 person evtols, are much, much heavier, meaning they have to displace WAY more air to stay aloft. I'm not saying the evtols as a loud as helicopters, but that thing is just a big drone, not an "urban air mobility solution".
 
Jim K said:
I'm not saying the evtols as a loud as helicopters, but that thing is just a big drone, not an "urban air mobility solution
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Context is everything. Since noise was the primary reason helicopters could not be used for street-level UAM ops, it was also the principal design criteria to mitigate with eVTOLs. And with the initial in-flight noise measurements by NASA of the Joby several years ago, its noise signature came in lower than the ambient noise levels of NYC. So in an urban environment it wont be heard above the existing street noise.
 
Betting that a reduction in perceived danger goes right along with the lack of noise. We would fly electric foam airplanes all around a local park that were so quiet that nobody paid attention, and no one thought they were dangerous - and they weren't. But once in a while someone would fly something with a ducted fan, with the little props inside spinning like a dentist drill, that made a noise like a giant mosquito. Traveling at the same speed people not only noticed them, they often acted afraid of them.

That thing above looks cool, but in my head is the thought that if you lose a speed controller, you're gone. That happened a lot with the early RC quad copters.
 
Albany Tom said:
but in my head is the thought that if you lose a speed controller, you're gone.
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Not really. Given it uses NASA's Distributed Electric Propulsion technology like most eVTOLs use, it can lose several propulsion units and still land under control. No single speed controller. DEP controls each motor individually and will balance lift as needed. And since they also use redundant motors, the odds of losing a propulsion unit are rather extreme.
 
They have been testing those things at my airport for the past year and from my experience they aren't that quiet. I definitely know when one is up there. My initial impression was that it would get boring pretty quick but after watching some youtube videos of people taking rides I think the abject terror you experience while in it will preclude any boredom. Control seems to be maintained with frantic and wild speed variations of the motors. Take offs and landings require a carnival ride attitude, maybe you get used to it?
 
Bell206 said:
Not really. Given it uses NASA's Distributed Electric Propulsion technology like most eVTOLs use, it can lose several propulsion units and still land under control. No single speed controller. DEP controls each motor individually and will balance lift as needed. And since they also use redundant motors, the odds of losing a propulsion unit are rather extreme.
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Good to hear. The tiny RC versions used single 3 phase brushless motors per blade, single speed controller per motor, with a gyro sorting out the speeds. The controllers used paralleled MOSFET or IGBT's per leg, and they would sometimes overheat and then cascade fail. Even on a 6 rotor copter, with one motor out they'd just spin around like a bad 1940's V2 test when they lost a motor. But when it worked, which was most of the time, they were awesome.
 
Why would you want one of those when you can have a smoke belching demon that wants to shake your fillings loose and that costs more than your house payment?
 
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