AirCar, a dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle moved closer to production this week, fulfilling a key development milestone in a 35-minute flight from the internat...
  • Tatters@feddit.ukEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    How is a helicopter remotely like a car? I agree though, that flying cars are a bad idea.

    • Rob T Firefly@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      Putting aside the different principles behind how they propel themselves through space, the basic concept of a helicopter and a car are quite similar.

      • It’s a metal box with machinery, windows, and doors.
      • You open a door and get in at the start of your trip.
      • You sit at the controls, which you are required to undergo training to use properly and lawfully.
      • Other passengers can sit in the rest of the seats and come along with you on the trip.
      • You activate the machinery and make the box move where you want, maneuvering along paths and around obstacles.
      • At the end of the trip you stop the box in a safe place, switch off the machinery, and get out.
      • Tatters@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        All of that applies equally to aeroplanes and boats. I don’t see how a car is any more like a helicopter than e.g. a small aeroplane.

        • Rob T Firefly@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          You’re using that point to call them different, I’d use that same point to call them all alike. Passenger vehicles are all fairly consistent in concept, and this is why no scifi “flying car” will be markedly different than giving every dope with a driver’s license their own helicopter.

    • hibbfd@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      maybe they are talking about the helicopters you can drive around in too. they don’t have big rotors on top, just basically a little fan in the front to cool the radiator when not in flight mode.

      oh wait I’m thinking of a car