The images below look like an ArtCenter grad’s portfolio, but apparently the development of these machines is being pursued.
An Austrian startup called CycloTech is working on a novel propulsion style for electric flying vehicles. Rather than using conventional rotors or propellors, they’re using what they call CycloRotors, which are an array of adjustable fins contained within a cylindrical package.
These CycloRotors can provide thrust in 360 degrees around their circumference. With six of them around the vehicle—four in a transverse orientation, two in a longitudinal orientation—a unique benefit is gained: The arrangement “enables high-precision sideways and backward flight, as well as mid-air braking – all without tilting or banking the vehicle.”
While the test vehicle looks fairly prosaic…
…the forms they’re envisioning for the finished product are socks-knocking:
If you can’t get your head around how the 360-degree thrust thing works, see the video below:
CycloTech says their planned production vehicle, to be called CruiseUp, will be safe; the six CycloRotors “provide a high level of redundancy, allowing [one] to fly and land safely, even in the event of a rotor failure.”
The company envisions these being used not as an air taxi service, but as privately-owned vehicles that will take the place of cars. The design of the CruiseUp is intended to fit within our existing domestic environment. “While the 20th century taught mankind to fly with fossil fuels,” they write, “the 21st century will see emission-free ‘Flying Cars/Air Cars’ become part of a new normality.”
