electric multicopter - first-ever manned flight in germany

[Antares]

What do you think about this:

http://www.gizmag.com/first-manned-multicopter-flight/20345/picture/146307/

Is it a new aircraft-class?


Greetings
Ulrich

[Kilrah]

Not really.
Firstly not until the energy storage is sorted, as what they did is just good for a couple of minutes.
Then, such an aircraft would have limited practical use as it can't get any kind of useful speed (think about 20-30kt max)...

I've been flying some of these in R/C form for about 4 years for fun and for aerial photo/video shooting, and in this form I'd have a hard time finding a practical use in full size scale. I do have a few ideas to make the design better suited though

And who needs to be inside anyway! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qLD37_HiyY&hd=1

[Stef]

Looks interesting but scary! At least the prototype. You gotta be really careful not to lean over too much as no matter which side you'd fall down, you'd be sliced!

Not really.
Firstly not until the energy storage is sorted, as what they did is just good for a couple of minutes.
Then, such an aircraft would have limited practical use as it can't get any kind of useful speed (think about 20-30kt max)...

I've been flying some of these in R/C form for about 4 years for fun and for aerial photo/video shooting, and in this form I'd have a hard time finding a practical use in full size scale. I do have a few ideas to make the design better suited though

And who needs to be inside anyway! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qLD37_HiyY&hd=1

About the energy supply: you're probably right, but then it was the first flight of this sort. I'm sure the technology will improve over time.

Sweet video!! Say, do you have a helmet with a screen or something when you fly your thingies?

[Kilrah]

Looks interesting but scary! At least the prototype. You gotta be really careful not to lean over too much as no matter which side you'd fall down, you'd be sliced!

Yep!!!
And I wouldn't be so overly confident on one of those myself. One little electronic glitch, and you fall down to the ground like a rock...

Sweet video!! Say, do you have a helmet with a screen or something when you fly your thingies?

Yep! something like this:



Sometimes it can be aucmented with a head tracker, so a head movement results in the same movement of the camera onboard the aircraft. Best used on fixed wing though, these have a somewhat more predicatable trajectory... 

[Stef]

Yep! something like this:

Sweet!! Does it have separate screens for each eye? Could you mount a 3D camera?

[Kilrah]

Yes most have 2 separate screens, but not all support 3D (the screens are fed the same image).
I have already flown a 3D setup with 2 cameras, it's... quite nice, but it's not like day and night. It adds a little something but isn't really worth it IMO.
The problem is that we fly with rather wide angle lenses to have a pretty realistic general view, and this causes the depth effect to only work for close objects. The setup I flew had the cameras on each wingtip to have about 1m separation instead of the usual natural separation, to amplify the effect - but even so it works only with objects up to 20-30m distance. And it also exaggerates it so much for closer objects that for landing you feel like you have one eye on each side of the runway

Head tracking adds more IMO.

[Mike]

is the manned version even real?

those little propellers are lifting a guy?

[Kilrah]

Little props... but there are 16 of them

Yes definitely real.