Passenger-carrying drone to fly in Dubai

[Mavic_Ward]

Well, this is interesting.

https://phys.org/news/2017-02-passenger-carrying-drone-dubai.html

Up, up and away: Dubai hopes to have a passenger-carrying drone regularly buzzing through the skyline of this futuristic city-state in July.


Mattar al-Tayer, the head of Dubai's Roads & Transportation Agency, made the announcement on Monday at the World Government Summit.

The drone—a Chinese-made EHang 184—is an egg-shaped craft with four legs sticking out, each with two small propellers.

The rider punches in a destination on a touch screen in front of the passenger seat, then the drone would fly there automatically.

The drone, which has a half-hour flight time, will be monitored remotely by a control room on the ground.

EHang did not respond to a request for comment. In May, authorities in Nevada announced they would partner with EHang to test the 184.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-02-passenger-carrying-drone-dubai.html#jCp

 

[Pedro]

Sod that, imagine losing GPS signal and having a fly away..

 

[HeavensAbove]

Sod that, imagine losing GPS signal and having a fly away..

You're not going to lose comms link though so you can just take the stick. Unless of course you're using an Xbox controller to pilot it.


Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

 

[larkin]

Sod that, imagine losing GPS signal and having a fly away..

Yeah, hopefully it doesn't switch to ATTI mode and become unresponsive to controls like some drones I know [emoji19]

Sent from my XT1650 using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[rich32]

Those propellers are lined up with passenger. If prop let's loose, dead passenger.

Sent from my SM-T713 using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[HK!]

I hope it doesn't do stuff ours do, Because its a drone too. Haha..ha..heh...hmmm

 

[CactusJackSlade]

Those propellers are lined up with passenger. If prop let's loose, dead passenger.

Sent from my SM-T713 using MavicPilots mobile app

I noticed that at the CES show... yeiks!... although if they follow the same protocol for prop building as they do for commercial airplanes hopefully not a problem.... how many prop failures do you hear about?... but you are absolutely right... it would be a zinger right through the cockpit.