If you are a tech fiend like us, then come along as we showcase some innovative vehicles.
You will see a gyroplane that takes the hobby concept to reality
and the world's new fastest electric plane Rolls-Royce's Spirit of Innovation. We also
have the amphibious utility vehicle Fat Truck 2.8p that joined the Fat Truck family.
Let's get to it!
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The aero-engineers over at Transcend Air are not B lining to transition to
electric like many other companies. Their new VTOL just got a powerful
makeover making it three times faster than helicopters for half the price.
They are doubling down on turbines with their Vy 400R. They have upgraded the previous
one thousand seven hundred horsepower engine to a two thousand five hundred horsepower engine.
Better yet, they are currently working on a three thousand horsepower engine for the 400R.
This improvement pushes the expected speed up ninety miles per hour for a total of five
hundred miles per hour, and the range from five hundred to six hundred and twenty-five miles.
If a company didn't want to wait for the engine upgrade, it could consider going with
the super light seats that Transcend Air offers to carry more fuel.
This newer version's power also has the side effect of improving flight quality
by adding more propellers closer to the body. This means a quieter ride with fewer vibrations.
Transcend estimates the Vy 400R will come in at somewhere between 4.6
to 6 million dollars, depending on how these options play out.
The company hopes to achieve certification by 2025.
In 2018 a group of former members from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Generation Orbit got together
and made a little company called Hermeus.
Hermeus is under a six hundred million dollar contract from the United States Air Force to build
a hypersonic aircraft called the Quarterhorse. Which is expected to fly faster than Mach 5.
They expect to hit that Mach 5 mark using a Turbine-Based Combined Cycle engine,
or TBCC engine built around a commercial GE J85 turbojet engine.
What does any of that mean, though? Well, a TBCC engine uses your average turbojet to get to those
high speeds, where as a ramjet would ignite while climbing to hypersonic speeds.
The Quarterhorse is still a way out, with the company estimating a flyable prototype
out sometime this decade.
If you want to get updates on any of the vehicles, we cover here in the future,
let us know in the comments. We appreciate the feedback!
Rolls-Royce has been a big name in the automotive industry for over a hundred years. As of late,
however, they have been seeking to branch out, and tackle the electric aviation scene.
On November 16th of 2021, Rolls-Royce's impressive Spirit of Innovation obliterated
the previous speed record by over one hundred and thirty miles per hour.
It proceeded to break the record again by over one hundred eighty miles per hour
and also broke the fastest time to climb to three thousand meters,
or just under two miles, with a time of two hundred and two seconds.
It reached a maximum speed of three hundred and eighty-seven point four miles per hour
during its runs. Which Rolls-Royce firmly believes makes the Spirit of
Innovation the world's fastest all-electric vehicle.
Rolls-Royce CEO, Warren East, attributes the assistance of
the Electroflight with their advanced batteries
and propulsion system that he believes will shake the electric aviation markets.
Rolls-Royce even claims that the battery packs used in the construction
are the most power-dense ever be assembled in aerospace.
Big claim and high praise, but they have the speed to back it up.
Using a mixture of airplane and helicopter designs, the German company Fraundorfer
Aeronautics unveiled the Tensor 600X at the European Rotor's show.
Because of its unique dual design inspiration, the Tensor 600X
firmly places itself in the gyroplane category.
So what is a gyroplane? Well, similar to a helicopter,
the lift comes from top rotors. However, the rotors are not even powered during flight;
their forward momentum and airflow keep them rotating.
This means this hybrid heli-plane can safely glide down to the ground during
power outages or other emergency scenarios.
As of right now, it only seats two, but the company has stated that they have plans for
an upscaled taxi version that can accommodate six passengers.
Its capabilities are typical. It runs a Rotax 915iS engine, can take off from 300
feet of runway at its maximum takeoff weight of 1,323 pounds, and land in just 70 feet.
The minimum flight speed is 31 miles per hour, and it cruises at speeds up to 124 miles per hour with
a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet. It delivers a range of around 373 miles at 115 miles per hour,
running on premium pump gas or avgas.
The company says that their Tensor design can be easily adapted
for either electric or hydrogen powertrains, which makes us happy to hear.
Aviation, like other industries, has been seeing a
boom with the rise of eVTOLs and other innovative creations.
Jason Hill and his company think there is still untapped potential for helicopters.
He is seeking to target the private owners with the HX50.
People who want a simple-to-use bird with minimal on-ground hassles, a luxury cabin,
and an aesthetically pleasing chassis.
What's more, Hill offers the buyer a chance to come into the factory
and build fifty-one percent of their aircraft using the company's tools and equipment.
The goal is for future owners to be much more familiar with their HX50,
making them better long-term owners.
Hill says that their machine is good for five thousand hours of
flight before an overhaul will be needed on the four hundred horsepower engine.
There are two fifteen-inch touchscreen monitors and an iPad in the cockpit
that can be reconfigured, as well as downward and rear-facing cameras.
The HX50 offers a max speed of one hundred sixty-one miles per hour
and a max range of eight hundred and six miles.
If you happen to be in the market for sone,
you can pick up an HX50 up for around $665,000.00.
Every so often, a bizarre and unique vehicle is made into reality, and the French fellas
over at Citroën have maybe done it this time with their My Ami microcar.
This is a utility reimagining of its predecessor, simply called Ami,
a much more streamlined city-only mini car.
The new design does away with both doors, making room for a couple of storage bins.
An eye-catching color palette swap, some sand-capable tires,
an LED bar, and headlight cages make for some of the more noticeable differences.
The My Ami still shares the same mechanical components as its parent car,
as it's meant to be a spinoff for beach use.
It has an eight-horsepower motor that sees a top speed of around thirty miles per hour
with a maximum range of forty-three miles.
Because of its small stature, it's not actually considered a car in the European Union.
It is viewed as a quadricycle.
This means that a license is not required to drive it,
and people as young as fourteen in some countries are allowed to operate it.
A large host of inhospitable terrain is sprawled across Canada's borders.
A Quebec company called Zeal Motor has made a line of vehicles to specifically tackle that.
The Fat Truck was a big box-shaped chassis on four massive sixty-five-inch paddle tires
and used a single joystick to control.
Now the Fat Truck has a brother, the Fat Truck 2.8P. This variation of the Fat Truck is made
to carry workers and materials separately across soft earth or deep water.
In fact, this big boy can load up to two
thousand two hundred pounds of tools, gear, materials, and cargo.
The sixty-seven horsepower Caterpillar engine uses one hundred fifty-three pound-feet of torque
to power this big pickup truck.
While traveling on land, the 2.8P can hit speeds of up to twenty-five miles per hour
or around three miles per hour when paddling through the water.
Drawing inspiration from Tesla's Cybertruck, the Thundertruck is an electric four by four truck
with a dark military aesthetic and rooftop solar panels.
This was conceived by a Los Angeles team during the lockdown,
and its sleek, angular features make for an interesting view.
According to the spec-sheet of this vehicle, the dual-motor powertrain pushes
out eight hundred horsepower with the help of a one hundred and eighty-kilowatt battery.
The Thundertruck claims it will have a range of four hundred miles, but if you want even more
juice for your squeeze, a range extender will take that up to four hundred and sixty miles.
The range extender is a two-wheel add-on,
making this vehicle a six-wheeler by utilizing self-balancing tech.
And if that isn't enough for you, a collapsable, roof-mounted solar array can give you another
seventeen miles, give or take, if you leave it out to charge all day.
Scroll down to the comments to let us know if you liked the Thundertruck, and while you're down
there, let us know which innovative vehicle was your favorite? We love to hear your feedback!
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