{"id":2325,"date":"2010-12-19T15:54:40","date_gmt":"2010-12-19T22:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2010-12-20T08:33:41","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T15:33:41","slug":"drs-seeley-and-moore-hit-one-out-of-the-airpark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/drs-seeley-and-moore-hit-one-out-of-the-airpark\/","title":{"rendered":"Drs. Seeley and Moore Hit One Out of the Airpark"},"content":{"rendered":"

The January 2011 issue of Popular Mechanics<\/em> resurrects the perennial hope for a flying automobile.\u00a0 The cover taunts, \u201c(Go Ahead, Laugh) But NASA, DARPA & the FAA Are Serious.\u201d\u00a0 Sharon Weinberger taunts some makers a bit in her article, \u201cDriving on Air,\u201d as she looks at a variety of Transformer-style vehicles that can travel by land or air with the fewest inconveniences.\u00a0 She notes the differences between propelling cars and planes, and looks at extremely different modes of giving people personal aerial transport, including the Moeller Skycar (\u201cInventor Paul Moeller has been developing the concept for nearly 50 years.\u00a0 To date, the M400X has only hovered on a tether.\u201d), the Martin Jetpack, The Cartercopter, and the Terrafugia Transition that\u2019s been getting an enormous press following (and a featured spot in the Hammacher Schlemmer\u00a0Christmas catalog)\u00a0lately.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Mark Moore's Puffin PAV <\/p><\/div>\n

She ends with an overview of Dr. Mark Moore\u2019s Puffin<\/a>, detailed in this blog in January.\u00a0 After explaining that a commuter using the Puffin would rise relatively noiselessly out of his or her back yard, Weinberger turns to the problem of making the skies safe for the hundreds or thousands of such personal air vehicles (PAVs) that many would see as merely transferring traffic jams to a higher level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Moore\u2019s world,\u201d she writes, \u201cthe nation\u2019s airspace is open to unmanned aerial vehicles.\u00a0 In reality, the FAA has been reluctant to allow UAVs to share the sky with airliners, sport aircraft and helicopters.\u00a0 The Pentagon is leading the effort to draft the rules and define the technical standards that will open the nation\u2019s airspace.<\/p>\n

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Why automated ATC will be necessary with 10,000 PAV flight operations in the NYC area daily<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cPressure is mounting to do so as federal and local agencies develop plans for using drones to monitor weather, provide tactical reconnaissance for police or conduct environmental studies.\u00a0 So commuting on a Puffin would be like hitching a ride on a UAV studded with collision-avoidance sensors and wired for direct communication with other aircraft and sensors on ground infrastructure.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such concerns are not only important in the U. S., but in Australia, where Richard Glassock and the Smart Skies program <\/a>address issues including, \u201cThe development of leading-edge research platforms, sense-and-avoid systems, the automated separation management system, the mobile aircraft tracking system, development of simulation capabilities, and research into the development of UAS regulations and risk management.\u201d\u00a0 Glassock, more than incidentally, is expected to address these concerns in a presentation at the fifth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium in Santa Rosa, California in April, 2011.<\/p>\n

These reflect the requirements for making American skies safe, a major part of Dr. Moore\u2019s plans for aircraft like the Puffin.\u00a0 He also sees a niche role for such PAVs, neatly fitted between the longest comfortable drive and the shortest practical commuter flight.\u00a0 As many who have frittered away their lives in security lines will attest, a fine line exists between the hours involved in getting on a half-hour flight and the coin toss that leads to a moderately long drive, fraught with all the hazards and literal roadblocks that entails.<\/p>\n

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Two acres and 120 flight operations hourly<\/p><\/div>\n

Concluding his talk at the fourth annual EAS this year, Dr. Moore showed the viral video of the Puffin lifting vertically from its \u201claunch pad\u201d and whisking its commuter pilot to a destination.\u00a0 Not all PAV\u2019s will be vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capable, however, and Dr. Brien Seeley, President of the CAFE Foundation, posits the pocket airport as a means to accommodate short takeoff and landing (STOL) PAVs.\u00a0 As shown in Gizmag\u2019s<\/em> coverage of Dr. Seeley\u2019s talk <\/a>at the recent Future of Electric Vehicles<\/em> conference, these miniature flying fields could serve as a launching point for dozens of daily commuters.<\/p>\n

Pocket airports could cover as little as two acres and handle 120 flight operations per hour and extend to 12 acres with four runways and 240 flight operations per hour. \u00a0If each PAV carried the carpool equivalent of four passengers, up to 11,520 passengers could be shuttled off to work every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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12 acres and nearly 12,000 commutes daily<\/p><\/div>\n

Neighborhood acceptance of either a personal liftoff from one\u2019s own back yard or mass sorties from a nearby mini field requires a type of quiet electrically-powered craft that will radically change the face of private aviation.\u00a0 The supporting infrastructure will require equally radical rethinking of the rules of the air.<\/p>\n

Drs. Seeley and Moore often seem to be tag-teaming the subjects of PAVs and how they will safely navigate future skies.\u00a0 Their continued alliance on these fronts could eventually lead to alleviation of the gridlock we now experience on the ground and in the air, and give us even greater personal mobility as we conveniently, quickly and quietly reach our destinations.<\/p>\n