Posted on 05/07/2024 12:21:54 PM PDT by Red Badger
The Pivotal Helix is a single-seat eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off & Landing) PAV (Personal Aerial Vehicle) with a range of 20+ miles (with 20% reserve) and a cruise speed 55 knots (63 mph). You can order now for July 2024 delivery, and no license is required, though you can't take delivery until you have completed the training. Pivotal
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Personal flight is currently undergoing a renaissance thanks to the rapid advancement of so many requisite industrial technologies. The next phase of personal flight is poised to begin and the production version of this aircraft could well mark the occasion in history.
In 2016, when the World eVTOL Aircraft Directory first began, it listed just a handful of electrically-powered Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft designs. Eight years later, it lists over 1,000 eVTOL concepts.
Many of these new aircraft are planned for launch over the coming 36 months, but it looks to us like the Pivotal Helix has beaten everybody to market as the world's first commercial eVTOL because it is about to begin deliveries of its scaled production units.
The first bulk customer deliveries will occur in July, though the very first commercial sale of the Helix occurred last October (2023) and the first four of eight Helix aircraft and two flight simulators that were ordered for evaluation by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) were delivered in February 2024.
The AFRL is currently evaluating the potential of the Helix for a wide range of missions, including surveillance, special forces operations, remote supply, disaster and emergency response.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
It might when it impacts the ground.
The size of a briefcase, anyway.
I got my SEL pilot's license in the '70s. Had a 4 place fixed wing plane for a couple of years and then I got married. Sold it and started to build a Benson gyrocopter (would be under 14 CFR Part 103 I think). I got it done up to the point of adding the engine. Then I took a serious look at it and sold it. Never heard any more about it.
I have it’s sales motto;
“Coming soon to a backyard near you.*”
*And below in very small print “or on your house, where you work, or on your kid’s school. Where it lands, nobody knows.”
Yeah, I can’t see anything going wrong with this idea. Full speed ahead.
“Wouldn’t you have to have a pilot’s license to operate one of those things?”
~~~~~~~
If you can build a functional single person aircraft that weighs less than 254
pounds, you don’t need registration or a license in the US to get on or in it and fly.
You still have to obey all the flight rules though.
But...
if you build or buy a drone that weighs even less than 249 grams (8.7 ounces)
and make any money from flying it, it seems that you ARE required to have a
drone pilot’s license and register any and ALL of your drones, whether used
commercially or not. (And still obey all the flight rules.)
You can, however, get on and fly an ultra-lite aircraft, no license and
no registration and even bring your camera, and sell the video afterwards.
In the Way Back Machine, I remember attending a few Stanford University football games. Back then, they were called the Stanford Indians. In the bleachers were some very inventive students. They took a very large dogfood bowl and attached long pieces of surgical tubing to both sides, basically a very large slingshot. During the halftime band show, they would launch large water balloons at the visiting team’s band. They became better and better at it. One time, they nailed the tuba instrument right in the large opening, knocking the tuba player over.
Imagine being up in the air in one of these eVTOL contraptions. Perfect for target practice. Heck, drone flyers could have fun too.
Also, just imagine attaching all kinds of strobe and other lights to it at night. The UFO crowd would go nuts.
Will Biden give you a 190K Incentive or tax break, or something? It is electric after all.
The Jetson is like $100k cheaper.
I would expect to see them in certain areas: Puget Sound, Lake Michigan, Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, Nantucket Sound, Martha's Vineyard, Long Island Sound, Hilton Head, etc. where a short hop saves hours of going around a body of water.
I would also expect to also see a few in use for "yacht to shore" flights.
Since it can take off and land vertically, it doesn't need a runway.
Might be a fun little toy. Kind of a replacement for my FPV drone for checking the corners of my property when I’m too lazy to walk or ride there myself.
But it wouldn’t even get me to my nearest grocery store and back, (or have room for the groceries if it could make the round trip).
**I gave up motorcycles because I recognized my limitations.**
Good for you!
Wife and I have been here in south central TN for 7 and a half years. The curves and dense woods here make motorcycling too risky for me. I think this county has about one deer strike fatality a year. And I never was much of a city biker. Wouldn’t now because of the cellphones.
No such thing as a pilot’s license.
I wonder what the vehicle specs do if you put in a highly efficient ICE with a good turbo?
Looks like a ready made coffin.
Motorized unicycles already exist. The only question is what you consider to be high speed. In fact I have seen at least one You Tube video of motorized unicycles racing on a small road race type track. Not sure what speed they were attaining. As someone who used to ride the old fashioned pedal unicycles in days of yore, there is no way I would try riding one of these.
Looks like a death trap aerodynamically, and one short or a low battery sooner than you think and you’re dead.
But on the plus side, it has a 20 mile range!
For example, when ultralight aircraft first came out, I was working on my commercial certificate and instrument rating. I was training out of Topeka Billard Airport, an airport with a control tower. I was holding short of the active runway, called tower for take off clearance, and was cleared for take off. Then I looked out on short final and saw an ultralight heading for my runway. I told tower I was holding short for the ultralight. He said "What?" Then he looked. We both sat there and watched the ultralight come in, touch down, and depart again. That's my first concern. Ignorant operators going where they shouldn't go.
Imagine the sight of one on fire meteroing into the ground.
That would be awesome
One hell of a glide ratio! Straight down! Or does it have a parachute?
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