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by nine_k 1699 days ago
I wonder why the rotors are positioned so low. Should a propeller get fractured, the splinters would hit the pilot's chest and neck.

OTOH putting the propellers above would change the shape and thus the aesthetics seriously.

6 comments

At least small planes in europe (CS-23) aren't allowed to have humans within an (iirc ~15 degree) cone of them. This approach here seems to be done with no regards to such regulatory (and well-meant) requirements.
Sweden is very much "in Europe" and according to the company it's legal to fly it there.
1) This is a powered lift craft, not a plane, so it doesn't even fall under CS-23.

2) There are classes where you're allowed less in exchange for easier certification. If the craft isn't operated commercially and doesn't need to leave national airspace, certification is typically far easier (at least for anything not heavier than a medium SUV).

You see this in so many ridable multicopters and it always makes me cringe... the plane of rotation of a heavily loaded, high speed rotating part is not a healthy place to hang out. The shared plane of rotation of 8 of them is 8x as bad.
Worse than 8x as one prop can disintegrate into another, cascading into the pilot.
The giant balls of whoever flies one of the things would shield the head and neck area.
Not to mention that having the center of lift above the center of gravity gives you some dynamic stability for free. This approach is the opposite.
Thats the drone pendolum fallacy. The center of lift is largely irrelevant: https://drones.stackexchange.com/questions/1102/is-it-better...
This is still better than some of the similar designs. Some of them look really easy for the pilot to fall off and get ground up by the propellers. At least this one the pilot kind of looks sort of enclosed so they would not likely be able to fall out into the blades.
Was wondering that too. Also can‘t the rotors be shrouded or does that affect the power/agility negatively?
It’s a lot of weight for little reward. A duct/shroud may not even improve the safety in a significant way (if it were thick enough it could, but it’d need to very light)
This is really very light so I suspect the weight penalty is too much.