Boeing Aims To Bring Flying Cars To Asia By 2030 (nikkei.com) 84
U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing plans to enter the flying car business in Asia by 2030, looking to tap demand for the fast travel the vehicles could provide in the region's traffic-choked cities. Nikkei: Boeing Chief Technology Officer Todd Citron revealed the plans in an interview with Nikkei. The company is developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) craft at subsidiary Wisk Aero. The aircraft will adopt autonomous technology, rare among eVTOL craft. The plan is to first obtain certification in the U.S. before expanding into Asia. Details of the Asia business will be finalized in the future, including whether Boeing will sell the aircraft to companies aiming to provide eVTOL transportation services or operate the services itself.
Boeing is currently considering which country in Asia to enter first, including Japan. In Japan, domestic startup SkyDrive and Germany's Volocopter are scheduled to operate air taxi services at the 2025 Osaka World Expo. Boeing opened a research and development base in Nagoya on Thursday. It first established R&D operations in Japan in 2022 but had been renting space from other companies until now.
Boeing is currently considering which country in Asia to enter first, including Japan. In Japan, domestic startup SkyDrive and Germany's Volocopter are scheduled to operate air taxi services at the 2025 Osaka World Expo. Boeing opened a research and development base in Nagoya on Thursday. It first established R&D operations in Japan in 2022 but had been renting space from other companies until now.
Stop (Score:5, Funny)
They're struggling to keep their planes in the air right now, much less cars.
Re:Stop (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Stop (Score:5, Funny)
It's a product ploy. They are bringing "flying cars" while current products are safest as "driving planes"...
I kid...
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You kid, but you're right.
Re:Stop (Score:5, Insightful)
I came for this comment. Was not disappointed.
Boeing needs to focus on it's core business right now, instead of dreaming up flights of fancy. As a company, they appear to be falling into the shitter (likely a long process, and we're finally seeing the end results). Do they need a more serious wake-up call than what they've had?
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To be fair, going for next gen tech in everything flight is something that a large engineering company should do. Because we don't know what future technologies will look like.
Re:Stop (Score:5, Funny)
They're struggling to keep their planes in the air right now, much less cars.
Boeing: The sound your flying car makes when it unexpectedly lands on the roof of your neighbor's house.
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This can only go well (pfffft!)
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Will the doors fall off? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Will the doors fall off? (Score:4, Funny)
...Because technically, they are their own biggest rival.
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Would that technically count as blowing the doors off the competition?
...Because technically, they are their own biggest rival.
+1 Funny ... if I had Mod Points
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Marketing department: "I got a work-around ad for our product flaw!: 'real men don't need no stinkin' doors'.
Maybe start with safe planes? (Score:3)
6 years seems pretty ambitious, is Japan's FAA onboard?
Re: Maybe start with safe planes? (Score:3)
Yes, but they won't be a hindrance much longer, just as soon as the doors randomly come off.
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6 years seems pretty ambitious, is Japan's FAA onboard?
Nah, they know better than to be onboard a Boeing...
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Japan has a long history of taking issue with VTOL aircraft, specifically US military ones stationed at bases in the country. There have been some accidents and the public isn't fond of them.
Flying cars will never happen unless someone invents anti-gravity, because of the noise. And again, noise from US air bases and VTOL aircraft in particular is a long standing issue over there.
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6 years seems pretty ambitious, is Japan's FAA onboard?
This is the "Amazon will use delivery drones", and "Uber is developing self driving taxis" announcement. It's nothing more than pointless bullshit appeasing investors and shareholders who want to see someone say the word "innovation". Nothing will come of it.
The flying car is DOA. The costs of license alone, the lack of space for takeoff and landing as well puts this out of reach for everyone who doesn't already have a helicopter. You don't need to even ask if the JCAB are onboard with this. It won't even g
LMAO (Score:3, Funny)
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Good choice!
Chances are only ne of them has all 3 problems, and the other two only one. So you switch parts on the other two and are good!
All Jokes about Boeing aside (Score:2)
I look to movies of my childhood like Back to the Future as more or less aligning my expectations of what the 21st century would be.
The adult in my is a little afraid, the kid in me is still a little disappointed. What ever happened to hover boards and rehydrated pizzas from those movies? I kind of thought the kids from our generation would be running things by now...
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Never mind that, I'm still waiting for my self-lacing shoes.
Re:All Jokes about Boeing aside (Score:4, Informative)
From the article:
underground housing starts boom (Score:4, Insightful)
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Good one. Hilarious.
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Meanwhile... here far away from Aisa... nonsense. (Score:4, Insightful)
We just want Boeing to make planes that stay in the sky, don't drop doorholes, engines keep going, etc.
But I get it. The US market is no longer eager for Boeing's crappy product so they're going to try and unload it in Asia.
Flying cars.
Serioously.
What a bunch of nonsense.
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Boeing airspeed indicator tricks flight crew into crashing plane.
Boeing batteries catch fire, forcing an emergency landing
Boeing jet makes emergency landing after depressurizing due to an unsecured air plug
Boeing plane grounded after engine cowling falls of on runway.
Boeing management announces mass resignations to be effective much later this year.
B
Re: Meanwhile... here far away from Aisa... nonsen (Score:2)
Well played.
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Boeing airspeed indicator tricks flight crew into crashing plane.
I believe you mean the angle-of-attach indicator was causing a crash.
Ever since the Boeing 737 Original there was a process for runaway trim stabilizer, a process that evolved over time some but ended up becoming standardized as toggling off two switches and operating the trim by a manual crank. The 737 Original an 737 Classic were apparently light enough aircraft that a single pilot of moderate strength could operate this crank with relative ease. The two switches were to disable the manual yoke trim adj
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Boeing airspeed indicator tricks flight crew into crashing plane.
I believe you mean the angle-of-attach indicator was causing a crash.
I AOA Disagree. :-D
But seriously, yeah, it was Airbus that had airspeed sensor problems (pitot tubes).
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The US market is no longer eager for Boeing's crappy product so they're going to try and unload it in Asia.
Where have you been? They don't need to unload it - they just fly it over Asia and it unloads itself!
I doubt that they manage.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Boeing seems to be a company that would need manufacturing and engineering focus, but have an economy focus instead.
All the problems they have had are a symptom of trying to maximize short term profits in an industry where the product is safety crtical. That has never ended well.
I hope that one of the other airplane makers can make a breakthrough to the most common plane segments, as else soon the situation will be bad with a monopoly by Airbus. Monopolies tend to go badly for the users in the long run too..
I see their plan (Score:5, Funny)
The only way Boeing could make flying cars is if they build conventional cars and fuck it up
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If only you could flip a car and have it stay in the air semi-perpetually.
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If only you could flip a car and have it stay in the air semi-perpetually.
Strap an upside down cat to each wheel. It will hover forever.
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Or toast , butter side up.
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you're both halfway there.
you strap the toast *to* the cat, and it not only can't land, thus elevating, but spins, generating free energy!
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I think you have to attach one or two cats on one side, that should work.
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That would be a catastrophe!
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Har Har Har Har!!
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Merge with Ford Pinto.
Slogan: Break things, THEN move fast.
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The only way Boeing could make flying cars is if they build conventional cars and fuck it up
In other news, Boeing today announced a partnership with Spinlaunch....
is boeing okay? (Score:3)
not sure if boeing management has noticed, but they should check in with the folks who pay to fly on their machines. i hear trust in their product is waning. is now a good time to announce a new product line?
Re:is boeing okay? (Score:4, Insightful)
They don’t care what happens as long as the suits get paid.
It will be interesting... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Naaah... they will be using the 727 airframe, since all of its costs have been amortized.
Think big people (Score:2)
A flying car is simply a car in the air. Strap a few cars to the various 7x7 models, get to cruising altitude, pull release handle. Viola', cars be flying! Landing? Boeing figures Lockheed can figure that part out.
Eh? (Score:2)
They'll be flying jeeps. (Score:2)
No troublesome doors to keep on.
Flying car? (Score:5, Informative)
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"Flying cars" seems to be the buzzword for "cheap helicopter replacements of the future".
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Can't wait to hear the chatter between these things and the towers.
Can't wait to hear the chatter as these things hit the towers. FTFY.
Sorry Boeing (Score:2)
You're a bit late [streetmusclemag.com] to the show.
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^ a jpg you can hear
Somebody misread the date... (Score:2)
April 1 came and went. It's April 18 now.
Of course the VTOL development division can be a completely discrete entity from the commercial jet manufacturing side of the business. They may have no real overlap. They might have different cultures, with this R&D wing being much more healthy. They might be wildly capable of pulling this off.
What needs to be acknowledged - and repaired - is the perception that currently weighs down the company. "Just trust us" requires capital that they put in a big pile and s
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>Of course the VTOL development division can be a completely discrete
>entity from the commercial jet manufacturing side of the business.
[nods]
Yes, ind of like they separate the doors and airframes now . . .
electric VTOL (Score:3)
The company is developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) craft
Did they found an efficient way of storing electricity with little weight?
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Compared to a helicopter, with a turbine engine and a long blade, this would have a very different noise profile with 4 electric motors each spinning a propeller. Hopefully not as loud? Or at least not at the low, long-traveling "thud thud thud" frequency of a helo?
What of the noise problem? (Score:1)
When my neighbor leaves for work on his motorcycle it's a relatively minor rumble as he navigates his way from the cul-de-sac to the main road, sometimes it wakes me up but I'm used to it so it's a minor bother that lasts a few seconds, little more than a reminder on how long until my alarm clock will ring. If my neighbor had some "flying car" then the noise that would make would be waking people up for something like a half mile around. There's an interview with Elon Musk spelling out the noise problems
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There's an interview with Elon Musk spelling out the noise problems of flying cars which makes them impractical. I mentioned Elon Musk's opinion on something elsewhere and the claim was Musk isn't a trusted source. Okay then, find different sources, ones you trust, and let me know what they expect in noise produced from private flying vehicles.
Why the fuck did you need to consult Musk to learn that flying cars will make a racket? Anyone except an avid flying car fan could have told you that. Anyway, what special qualifications does Musk have on this subject that drew you to him? His cars don't fly.
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I can't win here. If I point out what should be obvious, that aircraft make a lot of noise, then I'll have someone claim that it is just a problem we haven't solved yet. If I give the name of someone that would know that aircraft make noise, and that it is a problem that is not easily solved, then I'm told I somehow picked the "wrong" person as a source.
Elon Musk came to mind as a source because I happened to see Musk in an interview where he was asked about the possibility of flying cars. In my original
Confounded Morons (Score:2)
Focus on fixing your planes first! If and when they grow safe, THEN you can play with Jetsons toys. You are already dancing with Chapter 11.
Maybe they should check the water in the Executive Suite, seems all who enter lose IQ points, door bolts, or both.
Is this really a good idea? (Score:2)
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It's raining men... (Score:2)
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Please no... (Score:2)
A car is a ground vehicle (Score:2)
This is a cross between a helicopter and a Cessna
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Wisk (Score:2)
I will not take this unnecessary Wisk.
Not a flying car its a eVTOL (Score:2)
Separately from that I'm pretty skeptical about the eVTOL market in general. While a vertical lift vehicle doesn't need a full runway it will need the equivalent of a helipad, and will be quite noisy - not something you can land in your driveway in suburbia. That limits its use to the sorts of missions that helicopters fly now. It may end up being a less expensive helicopte
Not a flying car (Score:2)
It's a type of helicopter.
Citron? Really? (Score:2)
The CTO's name is Citron? "Lemon"??? That guy must get ragged on about building lemons, making lemonade when you got lemons, that aircraft was a lemon, etc.. A LOT. Sucks to be him.
That said there was news the other day of a new big real estate development in Tokyo that would have flying taxis. Meanwhile there already are helicopters in Tokyo and they are expensive, but have real live pilots. I'd prefer a human pilot putting his or her life on the line, or just you know use the really cheap automobile tax
Flying Cars, or... (Score:2)
... or cars with parts flying off them?
Bedsle (Score:2)
That name seems apropos
If Ford can do it why not Boeing?
Team-up whit Tesla? (Score:1)
Yeah, that's the ticket!
(with apologies to Jon Lovitz)