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Author Topic: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept  (Read 14351 times)

Offline Frank N. O.

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The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« on: March 27, 2006, 04:20:30 PM »
To try and get some discussion going on here after a slow weekend (posting-wise, I myself had a lot on my mind) then how's this for a new plane project, The Hummingbird.

I myself have thought of ducted counter-rotating fans although not quite for lift as it appears this design aims for, the FAQ section is interesting, if it's true of course, but what do you real flyers out there think?

http://www.esotec.co.nz/hb/HTML/Drawings.html

Frank
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Offline Gulfstream Driver

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2006, 06:53:21 PM »
Looks interesting.  If it gets built and actually flies, it'll turn aerobatic flying on its ear.
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fireflyr

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2006, 01:04:34 AM »
CURIOUSER and CURIUOSER ??? ???

There are some really radical ideas out there but I can remember when some folks wondered if Burt Rutan had a screw loose so I'll never be too critical of any new ideas, no matter how far fetched they seem.   After all, there have been too few leaps in aviation technology in the last 50 years for us to ignore clean sheet designs----sooner or later one of them will work beyond our wildest dreams and folks will be wondering why it hadn't been thought of before.   I predict that you young aviator types are going to see some really exciting inovations in your lifetimes because of the new man-made building materials and also because of the ever increasing power of faster computers with which to implement radical aerodynamic ideas.

I'd love to see this one work. 8)
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Offline C310RCaptian

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2006, 04:11:09 PM »
I think it would work based on the same principal that helicopters work… Its just so ugly that earth will repel it. No offense to you sling wing guys.  ;D  But who said everything has to look good. It would be interesting to see if it does work but just like the ducted fan engines and winglets were treated at first, the public will reject it just because it looks funny. I personally would like to see it fly just because it is something new. O and to another post I saw Cessna is designing a new single engine aircraft. Might be a cross between a 206 and a 210. I read it in a magazine, I believe it was in “Flying” . I will try and find the article later… when the boss isn’t looking…  ;D
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Offline Frank N. O.

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2006, 10:41:17 PM »
Here's some competition for Moller (I wonder if his family is from Scandinavia? There's a popular family-name called Møller (Miller)).

http://www.sparkdesign.nl/actueel/20041013palv/20041013press.html

I like the idea on new small planes but they write about escaping traffic-jams in big cities like in LA (written about the Moller) and that scares the heck of me! No way in  would I want a normal commuter to manually control a flying machine, especially not a light nimble one that easily go into a spin, near other traffic and buildings etc.
I did hear though that the Highway In The Skies would be fairly automated but the NASA video I saw still showed a manually held control-joystick but they said it would be as easy as driving a car and seeing as how people drive cars then that scares me a lot! In my humble oppinion then either you're a pilot or you're a passenger, either you control the plane completely and let the plane control itself completely with you just giving the destination and then not touch any controls. What do you think?

The idea of a flying/driving vehicle would be ok though I guess but only if the switch happend at an airport, and that the vehicle would have to fly like any other planes meaning not into downtown at low altitude apart from purpose-made helipads.

Frank
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Offline Ted_Stryker

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2006, 10:48:42 PM »
Quote from: Frank N. O. on March 28, 2006, 10:41:17 PM
Here's some competition for Moller (I wonder if his family is from Scandinavia? There's a popular family-name called Møller (Miller)).

http://www.sparkdesign.nl/actueel/20041013palv/20041013press.html

I like the idea on new small planes but they write about escaping traffic-jams in big cities like in LA (written about the Moller) and that scares the heck of me! No way in  would I want a normal commuter to manually control a flying machine, especially not a light nimble one that easily go into a spin, near other traffic and buildings etc.
I did hear though that the Highway In The Skies would be fairly automated but the NASA video I saw still showed a manually held control-joystick but they said it would be as easy as driving a car and seeing as how people drive cars then that scares me a lot! In my humble oppinion then either you're a pilot or you're a passenger, either you control the plane completely and let the plane control itself completely with you just giving the destination and then not touch any controls. What do you think?

The idea of a flying/driving vehicle would be ok though I guess but only if the switch happend at an airport, and that the vehicle would have to fly like any other planes meaning not into downtown at low altitude apart from purpose-made helipads.

Frank

Purely from a safety perspective, I'd be in favor of an automated land vehicle that you punch in destination into and it drives for you on the roadways, with allowance for manual override only in emergencies or system failure.  Frankly, the everyday person has enough problems navigating in two dimensions.  Putting them in 3 dimensions is asking for trouble.

I'll probably end up like Bill Gates, who once said "Nobody will ever need more than 64KB of RAM"... but I think it's going to be a long time before we have true air commuting vehicles like they show in movies like "The Fifth Element", or "Blade Runner".  It'd be nice... but I think pigs will be flying first... at least in the first half of the 21st century.  2nd half... maybe.... but between politics, and and other forms of stupidity... I just don't see it in the near-term pragmatically.
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Offline Gulfstream Driver

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2006, 12:00:25 AM »
The 150/152 was designed as a commuter.  I think the theory was you could live in a suburb near an airport, and fly into the city.  Too bad it actually takes longer than just hopping in your car and driving to work.

The 50's or 60's (I can't remember which) saw the Aerocar.  Interesting idea, but it flopped pretty hard.

http://www.roadabletimes.com/roadables-modular_aerocar.html
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Offline madpilot44

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2006, 05:33:02 AM »
the idea behind it kind of reminds me of the optica, which was designed as an aerial observation platform, cheaper than sling-wings, but still able to do slow flying and have a good endurance. the production ended after the factory was destroyed in a fire after quite a few (I don't know exactly how many) planes were built
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Offline Ted_Stryker

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #8 on: March 29, 2006, 05:06:01 PM »
Quote from: madpilot44 on March 29, 2006, 05:33:02 AM
the idea behind it kind of reminds me of the optica, which was designed as an aerial observation platform, cheaper than sling-wings, but still able to do slow flying and have a good endurance. the production ended after the factory was destroyed in a fire after quite a few (I don't know exactly how many) planes were built

Very cool!!!!  I like!!!  Sad to hear the production of them stopped under such conditions too.  Looks like it is quite an aircraft!
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Offline Mike

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #9 on: March 29, 2006, 10:39:26 PM »
maybe this concept is the wave of the future and the fire was no accident....
 :-X
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Offline Ted_Stryker

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #10 on: March 29, 2006, 10:54:18 PM »
Quote from: Mike on March 29, 2006, 10:39:26 PM
maybe this concept is the wave of the future and the fire was no accident....
 :-X

Hmm... a conspiracy theory, eh?

Well, as I've always said... it's not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you!  ;D
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Offline madpilot44

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2006, 01:32:21 AM »
what I heard is that the fire was started by an angry ex-worker of the factory... will have to dig further into that though
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Offline Frank N. O.

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #12 on: March 30, 2006, 11:05:52 PM »
Strange, the plane does seem interesting, also with the ducted fan, and speaking of ducted fan-planes, here's a third one, the Fantrainer (pardon me for not mentioning the full name but it's quite long). It's a cool looking plane though, single- and two-seat versions were made.

And lastly, does anyone know of the concept plane designed by Luigi Colani called the Colani XII? I only have one picture of it and no info, and while it's clear it's just a scale model of a concept then it could be interesting if there was further info for it.

Frank
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Offline Roland

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #13 on: March 31, 2006, 12:53:41 PM »
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Offline Gulfstream Driver

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Re: The Hummingbird Aerobatics concept
« Reply #14 on: March 31, 2006, 05:07:16 PM »
How do you get in it?  I'd be afraid to climb on it, lest I break it.   :-\
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