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in a flap at Farnborough

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Joules:
Wow, thats some BS laden proposal, come on guys, whats the power to weight ratio to just get it off the ground.   Reminds me of the old black and white film of the aircraft !!!  with the big umbrella opening and closing above it.   ROFL

In fact it gets even more weird, one version of this attempted vehicle had flapping slats....  VERY, much like the above genius proposal.

vtsteam:
I love the older imaginings. Classier and more fun. The city mass flight dream is an old one, if somewhat imperfect, as envisioned by graphic artists, rather than pilots. Apparently cross-wind takeoffs are not a problem in cities, and runways need only be parallel with the building face. A whole squadron could take off at once with that number of runways -- a great advantage. Private planes could cross right through the middle of the commercial runways, and everyone is guided by vertical beacons. Dirigibles float up from below the runways, providing an breathtaking surprise for passengers and crew alike. The scale of this giant building puts the former twin towers to shame. Just look at the real estate it uses, abutting the empire state building. Most of the west side of manhattan becomes a convenient parking lot.

I do love this older stuff. Wonderfully imaginative. The newer schemes seem so much less grand.

(apologies for the large image, but you just can't read the print otherwise -- attached, anyway)

Fergus OMore:
I recall USS Missouri arriving in England  in 1949 and we, at RAF Hendon and RAF31 ( The Goldstars) Squadron got a a visit from a Bell helicopter.  Understandably, the survivors of the Battle of Britain, Bomber Command and numerous other bits of forgotten history surrounded this  'heap of mechanical bits' shook their expert heads and pronounced that it wouldn't fly..
It did and probably there are more 'choppers' today than what was a miracle of 'a Thousand Bomber raids'

Today, the two of us that survived until now try to collect the necessary funding for these successors to the two ambulance Avro Anson 12's that were part of our bit of aviation.

And Yes, I was at Farnborough 1949. I recall the gigantic Brabazon out of Filton, Comet1 and Meteor8 jets with reheats and 40 thousand feet in  4 minutes.

Farnborough 2018 CAN happen- but there will be a lot of expensive failures- as in my day.

Oddly, I'm scheduled to go back to the now RAF Museum at Hendon on 22nd April 2019. That is quite another anniversary and the burns of the wreckage of exactly 70 years ago cannot be seen. now.

Before then I will be flying into France-- faster than the Spitfires that were parked alongside that 'contraption'

BillTodd:
In fairness to the two guys who were 'selling' this: the idea is to make use of a known phenomenon , not magic.

The ducted wing generates thust with a smaller, slower motion than a conventional spinning aerofoil , thus potentially less noise and greater efficiency. The motion of the wing is a simple oscillation , which is not without its issues, but is easily produced compared to the flap of a bird's wing for instance.

They seem to have spent their time developing and optimising the duct aerodynamics rather than the mechanics of the system hence the rather crude wobble cam and lever shown on the site. 

Probably best to ignore the fantastic renderings and consider the idea as an alternative form of propulsion. The idea could have some merit.

Think what this might do for submarines where stealthy silence is life or death.


Bill

nrml:

--- Quote from: BillTodd on July 22, 2018, 04:10:16 AM ---In fairness to the two guys who were 'selling' this: the idea is to make use of a known phenomenon , not magic.

The ducted wing generates thust with a smaller, slower motion than a conventional spinning aerofoil , thus potentially less noise and greater efficiency. The motion of the wing is a simple oscillation , which is not without its issues, but is easily produced compared to the flap of a bird's wing for instance.

They seem to have spent their time developing and optimising the duct aerodynamics rather than the mechanics of the system hence the rather crude wobble cam and lever shown on the site. 

Probably best to ignore the fantastic renderings and consider the idea as an alternative form of propulsion. The idea could have some merit.

Think what this might do for submarines where stealthy silence is life or death.


Bill

--- End quote ---

Point well made. The technology will likely develop and find an application but probably not what they currently envision. It makes you wonder why obviously very clever people like them present their technological development in this manner. Is the dragons den (a reality TV entrepreneurship program in the UK) effect making it to mainstream business culture?

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