You get a flying car factory (RAR!)

[Zor]

In this scenario, you have been given the ownership of a facility built nearby your city (or if you live in the country, nearby the nearest city of more than 200,000 people) and the associated company that goes with it. Namely you get a flying car factory.

Said flying car factory can produce flying cars using gravitic technology and using electric jet engines for propulsion. This allows them to hover and vertically take off and land. Most of it's components, save for it's countergravity cells and power cells are fairly normal earth technology. The Countergravity Cells and power cells are specially made in a high-tech nano fabrication system which is specially designed to produce them and can't make anything else, but is robust and self repairing. It employs a staff of 5,000 people and has enough of an operating budget and supply of raw materials to last it about

It makes three models...

FCE-500 Shrike Economy Aircar
Length-4.4 meters
Weight-1400 kg
Doors-4
Seats-6
Cargo Capacity-900 kg
Maximum altitude-10km above sea level
Maximum Speed-450km/h
Range: 3,000 KM
Price-$25,000 CAD

FCA-1000 Falcon Sport Aircar
Length-5.2 meters
Weight-1600 kg
Seats-5
Doors-2
Maximum speed-5
Cargo Capacity-600 kg
Maximum Altitude-12km above sea level
Maximum speed-700km/h
Range-4,200km
Price-$40,000 CAD

FCT-800 Condor Airtruck
Length-5.6 meters
Weight-3200kg
Doors-2
Seats-4
Cargo Capacity-3,000 kg
Maximum altitude-10 km
Maximum speed-400km/h
Range-3,200 km
Price-$32,500 CAD

Your factory can make 1,000 Shrikes, 500 Falcons and 500 Condors a day. The shrike and the Falcon are seed shaped with a flattened bottom and a pair of maneuvering wings and jet engines coming out of the back. The Condor has behind the wings an enclosed cargo bed. All of them have a pair of wheels for landing.

What do you do?

Zor

[Purple]

What's the max these things can lift and still work properly? And how quickly can I turn this around into making flight packs that can be attached to other vehicles? Because quite honestly the specs on those things do NOT look safe for mass production and use by the general population who are not fighter jet pilots. And this technology would have great benefits when used in other fields that require lifting. Or you know, just making a flying jeep for the army.

[Broomstick]

I speak from experience when I say trying to keep ahead of where you're going at 400 kph is not a trick that comes naturally to human beings. You can learn it, but boy howdy you can get into trouble really quick at those speeds. Which is why, at least in the US, pilots wanting to fly things that go that fast (generally, over about 300 kph) are required to get a high performance add-on to their pilot's license.

I'd also worry about those altitudes - above about 3 km you really need to start thinking "supplemental oxygen". 10 km? That's a pressurized aircraft for sure.

Well, for DARN sure you'll need more than an automobile license to be able to operate one of these babies safely.

And I'm parking a Shrike in my driveway. Already having a pilot's license I should be able to drive/fly it immediately. Well, at least as soon as I get that high performance sign off.

First thing I do is open a flight school next to the factory. It will be necessary for the factory customers.

[Darth Nostril]

I get a flying car factory? I blow it up. Completely.

Most people cannot be trusted with a ground based vehicle that can travel at up to 100 mph and you want to give them something that flies at a tad under 280mph!!

Are you fucking insane?

I don't trust anyone with this technology, myself included, so it has to go.

[Sidewinder]

I get a flying car factory? I blow it up. Completely.

You're not even going to try selling the factory- or its components, after you dismantle it- for beer money?

Most people cannot be trusted with a ground based vehicle that can travel at up to 100 mph and you want to give them something that flies at a tad under 280mph!!

I must agree on this.

Are you fucking insane?

I don't trust anyone with this technology, myself included, so it has to go.

The technology has far-reaching and generally beneficial uses BEYOND "flying cars, rule of cool, LOL". Suppose the countergravity cells can be refitted to conventional aircraft, providing vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) or short takeoff and landing (STOL) performance that does NOT rely on expensive technology that has a tendency to fail if someone looks at it funny, unlike the US Marine Corps' AV-8 Harriers (see here). Think of how much space this would save, if you could shrink the size of airports by reducing or even eliminating large aircraft's need for runways! How much urban development could you perform WITHOUT encroaching on Los Angeles' surrounding natural environment, or the wildlife there, if you could build upon space once occupied by the International Airport's runways? (Do NOT say something stupid like "Get rid of the airport altogether!" Airplanes carry more than tourists and tourists' souvenirs. When famine strikes, you need cargo planes to carry food to where they're needed, before the food can expire- and that's just one example of how high-speed transport provides more benefits than disadvantages.)

At the very least, it could provide conventional aircraft with a safety device that could function at all altitudes (parachutes require a minimum altitude to fully open), saving lives that would otherwise be lost when engine failure or stalling occurs.

And if the power cells are "clean," they could potentially replace THOUSANDS of internal combustion engines and other energy sources, with great benefit to the environment.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Turn it over to HM Armed Forces in exchange for a share of any commercial sales from any technology in the factory or any technology derived from it. I'll let the Army and Royal Navy have some cool new toys and let them license the electric-jet engines and power supplies. This gives me a lot of money and lets the military get more cash as well, plus new toys. As far as I'm concerned, win-win.

[Purple]

Turn it over to HM Armed Forces in exchange for a share of any commercial sales from any technology in the factory or any technology derived from it. I'll let the Army and Royal Navy have some cool new toys and let them license the electric-jet engines and power supplies. This gives me a lot of money and lets the military get more cash as well, plus new toys. As far as I'm concerned, win-win.

Honestly I'd prefer to play things neutral and sell to everyone equally. The last thing we want is any single army getting exclusive rights on these things and abusing them to oppress the little people.

[Starglider]

What kind of autopilot do these things have? The solution for 'horrible pilots' is 'sufficiently advanced autopilots' - we're close to general release of self-driving cars and self-piloting flying cars is in many ways an easier problem.

[Purple]

What kind of autopilot do these things have? The solution for 'horrible pilots' is 'sufficiently advanced autopilots' - we're close to general release of self-driving cars and self-piloting flying cars is in many ways an easier problem.

A better question would be what kind of massive air traffic control network you imagine to make these autopilots work properly. If you are to have thousands of flying cars whizzing around the air just having a set of sensors on board won't cut it.

[Broomstick]

You could install our current tech regarding autopilots, already developed. The highest end requires ground-based guidance machinery as well as that on the aircraft but I think a viable system could be developed for mass use.

Prior to that, as I said, we already have in place programs to train and license people interested in acquiring such skills.

[Purple]

You could install our current tech regarding autopilots, already developed. The highest end requires ground-based guidance machinery as well as that on the aircraft but I think a viable system could be developed for mass use.

Prior to that, as I said, we already have in place programs to train and license people interested in acquiring such skills.

The issue I think would be tracking them all and making sure the autopilots have enough data to work with. Basically think off the ground radar and other equipment used by ATC on airfields today. And multiply the load on them a million fold as you not only have thousands upon thousands of these things being operated by motorists but it also happens all over the place.

[Zor]

And if the power cells are "clean," they could potentially replace THOUSANDS of internal combustion engines and other energy sources, with great benefit to the environment.

The power cells are clean, but they don't generate power. Rather they are very effective batteries.

Zor

[Eternal_Freedom]

And if the power cells are "clean," they could potentially replace THOUSANDS of internal combustion engines and other energy sources, with great benefit to the environment.

The power cells are clean, but they don't generate power. Rather they are very effective batteries.

Zor

That's still a major game-changer. Is that "clean" as in "no emissions" or as in "easy to produce with non-rare-Earth-elements?"

[Zor]

And if the power cells are "clean," they could potentially replace THOUSANDS of internal combustion engines and other energy sources, with great benefit to the environment.

The power cells are clean, but they don't generate power. Rather they are very effective batteries.

Zor

That's still a major game-changer. Is that "clean" as in "no emissions" or as in "easy to produce with non-rare-Earth-elements?"

Both.

Zor

[Broomstick]

You could install our current tech regarding autopilots, already developed. The highest end requires ground-based guidance machinery as well as that on the aircraft but I think a viable system could be developed for mass use.

Prior to that, as I said, we already have in place programs to train and license people interested in acquiring such skills.

The issue I think would be tracking them all and making sure the autopilots have enough data to work with. Basically think off the ground radar and other equipment used by ATC on airfields today. And multiply the load on them a million fold as you not only have thousands upon thousands of these things being operated by motorists but it also happens all over the place.

Actually, the majority of current air traffic over the US operates without needing to interact with ATC. 80% of American airfields have no control tower and no air traffic control other than pilots talking to each other over the radio. The FAA has a system in development were aircraft-to-aircraft communications take over a lot of what current ATC does, they've been testing it in Alaska which has a lot of small scale aviation and not a lot of infrastructure.

Where you need to most tracking/control is near major urban areas and hub airports. A proximity alarm (both other aircraft and terrain), some basic radar, and a "flight management system" is what you need. You don't really need super centralized traffic control except in the densest areas and take-off and landings (and not even those in outlying areas). People tend to overestimate the amount of oversight required for aviation operations. Certainly, for long distance trips you could have a system where the route is largely automated and the aircraft chooses altitude and route based on a series of simple rules that should prevent nearly all conflicts. We already have right-of-way rules to serve this function and they work pretty good even with fallible humans.

[Eternal_Freedom]

[
Both.

Zor

Well huzzah, I've just been handed a way to make existing road traffic cleaner and safer in an instant. I immediately license the designs for those super-batteries to Ford, Toyota, etc. The problem with electric cars (as I understand) is battery capacity. But these batteries are able to carry a car at aircraft speeds over much greater ranges.

That should make the hippies happy.

[Purple]

[
Both.

Zor

Well huzzah, I've just been handed a way to make existing road traffic cleaner and safer in an instant. I immediately license the designs for those super-batteries to Ford, Toyota, etc. The problem with electric cars (as I understand) is battery capacity. But these batteries are able to carry a car at aircraft speeds over much greater ranges.

That should make the hippies happy.

And only the hippies. Unless these things come with clean reactors on the side all those electric cars will still fill up from coal fueled power stations.

Speaking of power though here is a thought. Batteries like this could be used for large energy storage. Forget pumped water and dams. Just scale some of these batteries up and you are good to go. This might well revolutionize the utility or renewable sources like solar or wind that depend on the weather.

Actually, the majority of current air traffic over the US operates without needing to interact with ATC. 80% of American airfields have no control tower and no air traffic control other than pilots talking to each other over the radio. The FAA has a system in development were aircraft-to-aircraft communications take over a lot of what current ATC does, they've been testing it in Alaska which has a lot of small scale aviation and not a lot of infrastructure.

Where you need to most tracking/control is near major urban areas and hub airports. A proximity alarm (both other aircraft and terrain), some basic radar, and a "flight management system" is what you need. You don't really need super centralized traffic control except in the densest areas and take-off and landings (and not even those in outlying areas). People tend to overestimate the amount of oversight required for aviation operations. Certainly, for long distance trips you could have a system where the route is largely automated and the aircraft chooses altitude and route based on a series of simple rules that should prevent nearly all conflicts. We already have right-of-way rules to serve this function and they work pretty good even with fallible humans.

Hm... Even so. The issue I am seeing is that most of these vehicles would end up being used in urban areas for regular commuting. And you would still need some sort of system to prevent them from just being overloaded with data about millions of others trying to play bumper cars all at once.

[Eternal_Freedom]

It will shut up the hippies temporarily...possibly long enough to get a proper nuclear program underway. Problem solved.

[Broomstick]

Hm... Even so. The issue I am seeing is that most of these vehicles would end up being used in urban areas for regular commuting. And you would still need some sort of system to prevent them from just being overloaded with data about millions of others trying to play bumper cars all at once.

Millions of cars use the same roads with even less oversight every day. Granted, there are also accidents. That will be the downside - if we have millions, as opposed to thousands, of aircraft in the sky daily the absolute number of accidents will increase, even if the percentage remain the same.

[Batman]

I sell the damned thing to Lex and then laugh my ass off as he gets sued the living daylights out of him when the accidents pile up while I make another fortune providing the traffic control and collision avoidance systems he forgot.

[Darmalus]

Sell it to the US government or whoever will pay the most and retire to a life of luxury. Running a company is somewhere at the bottom of my list of things I want to do, while spending my life carefree and pursuing my hobbies is all the way at the top.

[Gandalf]

With a good autopilot, it's like having a missile factory for consumer use.

A few hundred kilos of something explodey, and point it at the site of your choice.

[InsaneTD]

Just the speed and size of these things makes then dangerous in that respect. The energy stored in the batteries would be released on impact.

[Batman]

Which is why every car accident ever resulted in a big fireball. The energy stored in the fuel they carry would be released on impact, right?
I think it's a bit more complicated than that.

[InsaneTD]

Fuel, is harder to ignite then Hollywood likes to show, as those that have been in, or seen, an accident can attest too. And I didn't say there would be a fireball. I just said the energy would be released and was also saying it would happen during a purposeful accident. I would assume that someone using these as a missile would make it easier for the cells to rupture.