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1. Some flying cars fly. Like the old airjeep [see link].
2. Counter rotating rotors create good lift, without spinning around.
3. Magnetic levitation is a nice principle. Apply it to a rotor: make a casing in which you put copper elements which create a magnetic field; in this cage you put the
rotor with copper tips, which is spinned around. Then add a second cage under it which drives another rotor in a counter rotating movement.
4. The rotors are kept in place in the middle.
5. This allows purely elecrtical and very efficient vertical lift.
6. Embed two pairs of these counter rotating maglev rotors in a car, and you can fly it.
7. It works on hydrogen.
I made a drawing of it [see link].
(?) Airgeep
http://www.piasecki.../images/airgeep.gif
It flies. [django, Feb 15 2006]
Maglev rotor
http://i3.photobuck...sel/maglevrotor.jpg
The rotor, only showing the principle. The blades are spinned by magnetic field. [django, Feb 15 2006]
Maglev rotor flying car
http://i3.photobuck...el/maglevrotor1.jpg
Don't mind the colors, it is just for safety. [django, Feb 15 2006]
Fan with maglev motor (in centre of fan)
http://www.suntat.com/2005dc-ma.pdf
[spidermother, Feb 15 2006]
(?) Another "Almost Flying Car"
http://www.skyaid.o.../Media/CityHawk.htm
Note the dates. So far they have spent a lot of money and built a hovercraft. [PSU_ME, Feb 20 2006]
[link]
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Cool. I used to make little electric model hovercraft, and found the need for a motor in the middle of the fan bothersome - it interupted the airflow and needed rigid supports. This is an elegant solution. You might get a slight loss of efficiency over a non-levetating motor, but you eliminate the need for bearings - no moving parts in contact. |
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I like it. Seems to me the distinguishing feature of this design is its hubless motor (points 3, 4, and 5). Points 1, 2, and 6 are not so innovative or interesting. |
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I'd like one with a single pair of rotors, please. Have the blades attach to a center ring, allowing room for a spherical, half-silvered pod in the middle for a pilot. Connect this by supports to the outer casing. I'll be sporting me hat, the green one with the large eyeball at the end of a curly antenna. |
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Just did a few calculations, two six feet
diameter rotors spinning at 2000RPM at
1000 feet of elevation with a lift
coeficcient of 1 will give around 30,000
pounds of thrust, but I may be wrong i'm
not used to calculating for helicopters.
Anyone know how much thrust is needed
to lift say, a 2000 pound craft? |
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I have been working on the flying car thing for several years now, so I have a pretty good grasp of the math. Magnetic Levitation is really just an electric motor that uses the magnetic force in place of bearings. Trains use them as a linear motor and bearings. In this application, Maglev has no advantages over conventional bearings and electric motors. |
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Currently, there are no full size helicopters that use electric motors because turbine power plants have a much higher power to weight ratio. Using hydrogen fuel cells or any other form of electric generation just adds to the weight. |
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The Piasecki Airjeep you showed had twin jet engines, which would crank full blast just to get the jeep to hover in ground effect. The real issue with flying cars is the ratio of three things: Rotor size, power, and weight. With small rotors and the weight of a car, you need thousands of horsepower to make it fly. I use to sell thousand-horsepower electric motors. They are very heavy. Magnetic levitation is not magic levitation. You still need a copper winding that can put out lots of power. |
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Hey, that is one slick picture. The beauty of this invention is that if you turn it upside down, its a food processor. |
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If (or when) superconductors improve so they don't need to be hyper-cooled, they would greatly help with the effiency of these maglev rotors.
If power can be beamed (like the idea of tranferring solar power from satellites via microwave) it would not need much fuel in the payload.
** humm... do I smell somthing being 1/2 baked?**
If the hydrogen fuel is kept in a gas form, it would contribute to the lift, although greatly increase size. |
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