The Register looks at the “Tyrannos” flying jeep:
Who remembers the “Transformer TX” flying-car project, intended to equip the US Marines with a small four-seat vehicle able to drive about on the ground like a jeep, hover like a helicopter, or fly like a plane? The first team to publicly offer a contending design has now stepped forward.
That design is the “Tyrannos” from Logi Aerospace, allied with other companies and organisations including the South West Research Institute and Californian electric-vehicle firm ZAP.
The Tyrannos is nominally intended to provide Marines with the ability to leapfrog over troublesome roadside bombs, mines, and ambushes while remaining able to drive on the ground as they normally might. However, it promises to be much quieter than ordinary helicopters in use and far easier to fly and maintain.
If the Tyrannos can do all its makers claim, it really does have the potential to become the flying car for everyman.
That last sentence really does wrap up the situation: if it can do all that is claimed, it’ll be a fantastic new toy for the military and (eventually) lead to the flying cars we were promised forty years ago. The specs seem hopelessly optimistic, but perhaps I’m just jaded because I don’t have a flying car of my own yet . . .
Reader beware, however. The Transformer TX project is being run not by the Marines themselves but by DARPA, the Pentagon crazytech agency which won’t even touch a project unless it is extremely unlikely to succeed.
“Give us ideas that probably won’t work,” that is DARPA’s motto: and the Tyrannos team assembled their design specifically to DARPA requirements. And, let it be noted, they have yet to satisfy even DARPA’s very relaxed rules on what kind of ideas should get taxpayers’ money spent on them.
If the picture is even remotely accurate then it would be difficult to drive around anywhere with normal width streets because it still has quite a large wingspan. on the plus side, Awesome, flying cars.
Comment by Penman — July 8, 2010 @ 10:59
On the plus side, looks cool. Like a car and a Cessna 337 Skymaster had some unholy offspring. And ducted fans are a lot quieter than your average helo.
On the downside, there is absolutely nowhere in that thing to hide an engine with enough oomph to power four ducted fans. To say nothing of the fuel required to drive four ducted fans; in its current configuration it would drain the wing tanks in about an hour.
Comment by Chris Taylor — July 8, 2010 @ 12:55