Meet the Air Force’s “flying car”
This is not a joke. This the the brainchild of the Agility Prime program, a non-traditional program seeking to accelerate the commercial market for advanced air mobility vehicles. That thing that looks like it was cobbled together came from Air Force grant money though AFWERX. I expect this weird stuff from DARPA, but not the AF itself. DARPA is probably too busy trying to figure out how to tie rockets to squirrels and train them to attack the genitalia of our enemies.
So what is AFWERX? I’d never heard of it, and it appears as if that’s not a clever acronym. Here’s how they describe themselves;
AFWERX is the Air Force’s team of innovators who encourage and facilitate connections across industry, academia, and the military to create transformative opportunities and foster a culture of innovation. Our mission is to solve problems and enhance the effectiveness of the service by enabling thoughtful, deliberate, ground-up innovation.
Enhance, enable, facilitate, these are words usually used to fluff up a resume.
Back to the egg-copter pictured above;
Agility Prime is a program with a vision of world impact,” Barrett said during the program’s launch in April 2020. “The thought of an electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle — a flying car — might seem straight out of a Hollywood movie, but by partnering today with stakeholders across industries and agencies, we can set up the United States for this aerospace phenomenon.”
In the heat of the afternoon, Matthew Chasen, LIFT chief executive officer, piloted the Hexa over the Camp Mabry parade ground, just a few miles from downtown Austin.
We now have over fifteen of the leading aircraft manufacturers in the world applying to partner with Agility Prime, with many of them already on contract,” said Col. Nathan Diller, AFWERX director and Agility Prime lead. “This flight today marks the first of many demonstrations and near term flight tests designed to reduce the technical risk and prepare for Agility Prime fielding in 2023.”
You may soon have that flying car that we were promised mid-century. You’ll look like an idiot and it’ll sound like a swarm of Africanized bees, but it’ll fly!
I think we could save some money and time by contracting with Colin Furze.
Source; Business Insider and AF.mil
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Air Force, Science and Technology
“just a few miles from downtown Austin”
There’s your answer right there.
Reminds me of the guy in the lawnchair flying VFR.
I haven’t had a fender bender in a long time. The nice thing about those, as I remember, is not falling out of the sky once that happened. As someone who has a pretty good safety record in a car (knocking on wood), I am also glad to not have to worry about others falling out of the sky on me. Pretty cool, but I just see that ever becoming a commercial thing unless it is so regulated as to make it near pointless – or a just ride. Would make it nice getting out to the deer blind in the morning, however.
Note the huge power line in the background.
Or big building’s (oWW)?
https://youtu.be/P3THxtOrvos
I saw the back ground power lines and got a charge out of that. Got to check out the hard cover Popular Mechanics and Popular Science books I have
“On The Future That Never Was” which had stuff like this that never made it PLUS stuff that we have now that was predicted back then.
No seat for Ms Thang and no room for a beverage holder. Where’s the in-dash AM/FM CD Player? Hell, ain’t even a dash. Place for a cooler? Is that the only color it comes in?
Don’t think the Soccer Mom Market is gonna be real impressed.
Where’s the gunrack?
I need one
Hmmm, I’ve always wondered where the Air Force sent people to that just couldn’t quite cut the mustard in MOS/Career Field 3M0X1/3F1X1.
I now see it’s AFWERX./s
Flying cars, as fun as they would be, will never work.
I mean they will work but the same fools and idiots that can’t manage two-dimensional driving will be trying it in three and that’s gonna reduce the populace quickly.
Has anyone considered the impact that flying automobiles will have not on the stoplight squeegee industry? Maybe AOC can set up a program so that those panhandlers can learn coding.
Just say no to duct-taping a bunch of drones to a lawn chair.
I want the hoverbike. Acts like a half-broke horse. I can handle it. Just needs a shell, airfoils, tricycle wheels for a smooth landing, and some flashy lights so that I can get the state po-po to swear, as Dog is their witness, it was a flying saucer on Highway 57 south, doing 120 MPHes.
What? Gotta get some fun out of something these days.
“DARPA is probably too busy trying to figure out how to tie rockets to squirrels and train them to attack the genitalia of our enemies.”
I see absolutely no issue with this and wish that more of my tax dollars could fund such innovation. No sarcasm here; the thought of deploying an MSNGM (Multi-Squirrel Nut Guided Munition) somehow fills me with intense delight.
Squirrels and rockets. Here you go. Just needs active weapons included.
Ha! Looks pretty well guided to me. Thanks for that.
Nothing beats a Flaming Squirrel. Still waiting for the Vice President of the proud but humble woman owned business that sells software to the federal government formerly located in Bethesda Maryland to book that corporate retreat with The Stunning Agency. That guy’s survival tips were incredible. Hack always carries an Orange with him in the event that he gets stranded on a deserted island, just plant those orange seeds and in 12 to 15 years you will be rolling in oranges. Then you take those oranges to a Los Angeles offramp to sell to some rich white people, then you can buy a raft, take it back to the deserted island, and get rescued.
Reading that mission statement, all I could think of was one of the best ads of all time, IBM’s “Buzzword Bingo”.
Since it was not mentioned in any articles I wouldn’t be surprised it has a 10 min flight time on its batteries.
Looks like something they would use for a snack bar run. Return, recharge overnight, repeat.
Brought to you by DerpA.
An aeroplane designed by an AF committee.
I’m certain beer was involved…