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| Topic | flying "cars" made by a company called Kitty Hawk |
| Dikitain 06/06/18 4:46:52 PM #7: | adjl posted... The real hurdle comes in regulating them. They may currently manage to stay under the FAA's boundary for requiring a pilot's license, but if the idea starts to look like it has any commercial merit, there'll be new, pretty heavy restrictions on their use. There are no "rules of the sky" analogous to those that govern the road, and nobody wants a bunch of unlicensed civilians flying around without rules. As it stands now, they make it under the FAA's requirement because they are technically classified as an "ultralight", or in other words they are incapable of causing significant damage if they crash. Basically an ultralight is (from Wikipedia, which gets it from the FAA site): Weighs less than 254 pounds (115 kg) empty weight, excluding floats and safety devices. Has a maximum fuel capacity of 5 U.S. gallons (19 L) Has a top speed of 55 knots (102 km/h; 63 mph) calibrated airspeed at full power in level flight. Also, it can only seat one person. Anything outside of those bounds and it requires a license and yearly inspection, essentially making it a full aircraft. --- I am a senior software engineer. If you see me post here, I am tired of writing TPS reports. ... Copied to Clipboard! |
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