Yes, I know I'm easily exciteable. Yes, the history of aviation is littered with examples of "personal flight machines" which either didn't work, would've exceeded anything a middle class clientele can sustain or in any case couldn't be safely trusted in the hands of every Tom, Dick and Harry. And yes, electric multirotor toys and drones are pretty commonplace.
But this project - DIY looking as it might be (... how about what I think is a core exercise ball doubling as landing gear?) - checks some intriguing boxes, ones that are also indicative of a wider convergence and perhaps heretofore unrecognized affordability of manned aviation technologies. An idea obvious enough to have been brushed aside without much consideration until now? Quoting from e-volo's site (abridged):
"The e-volo multicopter is an innovative, vertically starting, human carrying transportation device that is uncatagorisable to its current flight counterparts. ... The e-volos sixteen propellers allow it to take off and land similar to a helicopter. Its massive plus points compared to a helicopter are the simplicity of its engineered construction without complicated mechanics and its redundant engines. Should anything go wrong, e-volo can still safely land even if up to four of its sixteen motors should fail. ...
... In difference to other helicopters or multi-rotors, e-volo can use a safety parachute, as there are no propellers blocking the deployment area above. ... The propellers create the full lift, and are also responsible for balancing the device on all three axes only by independent speed control of the motors. E-volo from the beginning has been designed entirely as an electrically powered device. Unlike the rotor of a helicopter, the propellers dont´t have any pitch control and therefore no wear. These factors make the multicopter mechanically simple, with close to no maintenance necessary. ...
... The automatic attitude and directional control are taken care of by multiple separate and mutually monitoring onboard computers, controlling the engines with the precise rotation speed necessary to fly this tri-axis device. A simple joystick allows the pilot to control the aircraft via a fly-by-wire system. Whether during vertical takeoff, in flight, or landing, the pilot has to pay little attention to minimum speed, stall, gas mixture control, pitch control or one of many other things that make conventional flight as challenging as it is. ... This electrically driven system is quiet, clean and economically cost efficient. A one-hour flight would cost something near to 6 Euro for electricity. In addition, the device holds few parts, which could wear out, making maintenance intervals and cost low and far between. ...
... The control firmware can be integrated with a sophisticated integrated GPS system or obstacle detection. As such, automated flight for predetermined points on a 3D map is possible. In addition to the relieving the pilot of strenuous navigational tasks, unmanned flight would be feasible similar to other devices (drones). ... In some areas the multicopter may replace the average helicopter. The simple and cost efficient maintenance make it a viable counterpart to current aviational transport."
I originally encountered e-volo on makezine's blog. Taking a wider perspective, we may be entering an unprecedented age of enablement by fundamentally personalized manufacturing/imagining technologies, an ecosystem of "hacking" our real environment with "apps" which entirely transcend the virtual and physical realms, "crowdsourcing" abilities we may personally lack in "expertise clouds". This process may flow with an ease with which many (if not most) centralized, highly hierarchical, highly predetermined and mass produced "consumables" can't even approach.
Just occasionally observing sites such as makezine (or DIY drones) gives the sense that this kind of self-organizing coöperation is a tremendously efficient, rational and resilient way of doing things. And fun! We have been accustomed to a World where big things invariably equal big budgets, big leaders and big edifices. That "uncommon wisdom" is, IMHO, in the process of being cut down to scale when it comes to personal lives. This may turn out to be just the beginning of truly original flights of fancy.
But this project - DIY looking as it might be (... how about what I think is a core exercise ball doubling as landing gear?) - checks some intriguing boxes, ones that are also indicative of a wider convergence and perhaps heretofore unrecognized affordability of manned aviation technologies. An idea obvious enough to have been brushed aside without much consideration until now? Quoting from e-volo's site (abridged):
"The e-volo multicopter is an innovative, vertically starting, human carrying transportation device that is uncatagorisable to its current flight counterparts. ... The e-volos sixteen propellers allow it to take off and land similar to a helicopter. Its massive plus points compared to a helicopter are the simplicity of its engineered construction without complicated mechanics and its redundant engines. Should anything go wrong, e-volo can still safely land even if up to four of its sixteen motors should fail. ...
... In difference to other helicopters or multi-rotors, e-volo can use a safety parachute, as there are no propellers blocking the deployment area above. ... The propellers create the full lift, and are also responsible for balancing the device on all three axes only by independent speed control of the motors. E-volo from the beginning has been designed entirely as an electrically powered device. Unlike the rotor of a helicopter, the propellers dont´t have any pitch control and therefore no wear. These factors make the multicopter mechanically simple, with close to no maintenance necessary. ...
... The automatic attitude and directional control are taken care of by multiple separate and mutually monitoring onboard computers, controlling the engines with the precise rotation speed necessary to fly this tri-axis device. A simple joystick allows the pilot to control the aircraft via a fly-by-wire system. Whether during vertical takeoff, in flight, or landing, the pilot has to pay little attention to minimum speed, stall, gas mixture control, pitch control or one of many other things that make conventional flight as challenging as it is. ... This electrically driven system is quiet, clean and economically cost efficient. A one-hour flight would cost something near to 6 Euro for electricity. In addition, the device holds few parts, which could wear out, making maintenance intervals and cost low and far between. ...
... The control firmware can be integrated with a sophisticated integrated GPS system or obstacle detection. As such, automated flight for predetermined points on a 3D map is possible. In addition to the relieving the pilot of strenuous navigational tasks, unmanned flight would be feasible similar to other devices (drones). ... In some areas the multicopter may replace the average helicopter. The simple and cost efficient maintenance make it a viable counterpart to current aviational transport."
I originally encountered e-volo on makezine's blog. Taking a wider perspective, we may be entering an unprecedented age of enablement by fundamentally personalized manufacturing/imagining technologies, an ecosystem of "hacking" our real environment with "apps" which entirely transcend the virtual and physical realms, "crowdsourcing" abilities we may personally lack in "expertise clouds". This process may flow with an ease with which many (if not most) centralized, highly hierarchical, highly predetermined and mass produced "consumables" can't even approach.
Just occasionally observing sites such as makezine (or DIY drones) gives the sense that this kind of self-organizing coöperation is a tremendously efficient, rational and resilient way of doing things. And fun! We have been accustomed to a World where big things invariably equal big budgets, big leaders and big edifices. That "uncommon wisdom" is, IMHO, in the process of being cut down to scale when it comes to personal lives. This may turn out to be just the beginning of truly original flights of fancy.
