NEC shows ‘flying car’ hovering steadily for minute
The EHang 184 looks more promising.[1] That has four sets of contra-rotating props, so there&#x27;s some redundancy. Flight time 23 minutes, so it&#x27;s a demonstrator, not something useful. Like the others, it&#x27;s a scaled up quadrotor drone. This concept needs a higher battery energy density to work.<p>Someone recently flew a jet-powered &quot;hoverboard&quot; across the English channel.[2] That thing is powered by several large model aircraft jet engines. It&#x27;s much like the Hiller Flying Platform of 1954.[3]<p>If you like strange VTOL craft, many of them are in the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, CA.<p>Also check out the famous AvroCar flying saucer.[4] The US National Archives has uploaded the declassified videos to YouTube. The first video, before the first flight, was classified SECRET. The second video, after the first flight, was only CONFIDENTIAL. The third and final video was UNCLASSIFIED, because it didn&#x27;t work. The thing was sent to what is now NASA Ames to see if it was good for anything. The video shows it bumping around a meter or two off the ground, pretending to be a hovercraft. The original goal was a supersonic VTOL aircraft. Not even close. The U.S. Army canned the project in favor of the Huey helicopter, which actually worked.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=B7Hm-rmLQcU" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=B7Hm-rmLQcU</a>
[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnn.com&#x2F;videos&#x2F;world&#x2F;2019&#x2F;08&#x2F;04&#x2F;french-inventor-hoverboard-english-channel-intl-vpx.bfm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnn.com&#x2F;videos&#x2F;world&#x2F;2019&#x2F;08&#x2F;04&#x2F;french-inventor-...</a>
[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ANBeuGcZHBA" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ANBeuGcZHBA</a>
[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fourmilab.ch&#x2F;documents&#x2F;army_saucer&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fourmilab.ch&#x2F;documents&#x2F;army_saucer&#x2F;</a>