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Comment by artdigital | Hacker News Reader

“Parlor trick” - it’s a flying car ffs. It’s an incredible engineering accomplishment, even if just for a few seconds

"Just a good ol' boys, Never meanin' no harm". Cars have been flying for a few seconds on a regular basis since the 70s.

Controlled flight. Not ballistic.

I don't recall the General going vertically upwards. Bo and Luke's motor seemed to lack an engine when "flying" over rivers etc because if it had one, it would have gone vertical quite rapidly (down).

They actually did, but they filled the trunks with concrete to level them out in flight.

Here's a jump the Duke boys would've been proud of, in what appears to be an unmodified Buick LeSabre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kMTHwjy6Z8

I’m curious about the condition they’re usually in when they land.

I remember reading that there were actually about 25 General Lees. Pretty much every jump totaled one, and they'd swap in another, and haul off the first one to get fixed (or junked).

They also re-used a lot of "stock" footage.

If you're counting brief hops, the 1917 Curtiss Autoplane, "It was able to hop, but not fly."

The show averaged slightly over one car destroyed per episode - over 300 during the production run.

It's barely a shell of a proper car, complete gimmick for "car people" who think car industry came to be with Tesla two decades ago

> It’s an incredible engineering accomplishment

Many of the best parlor tricks are.

Right? People here cant enjoy the show. I don't see anyone else having soo much fun engineering a car. Too be on that team would be legit fun.

I'm not even an EV guy, and this is the coolest thing to come out of the automotive space in years. This is almost a throwback to the homologation days of rallying, when automotive companies sold unchained racing cars to the general public because the FIA and WRC deemed it so. Impractical cars in every sense of the word, but phenomenal engineering.

It’s falling with style

Its a hollow shell RC car with air canisters.

Tesla making a hollow shell full of hot air would seem appropriate somehow.

The page talks about a bunch of weight reduction tech, but I didn't see an actual final weight for the Rocket model? Given that it can support itself with "downforce" (and no thrusters, and apparently not much momentum?) at the top of the loop it's got to be pretty light...

(Ah, the youtube "designer interview" says around 1700kg (the first-gen was 1300kg; formula one has a minimum weight of 800kg.)

If this is the metric of a flying car then we had working prototypes in the 60s.

Any car can be made to fly if "just for a few seconds" is as stringent as your requirements get.

Any car can fly. Once.

The old pilot adage: a good landing is one you can walk away from. A very good landing is when you can re-use the plane.

We don't see the landing in this one, but I've got a feeling it would not qualify as good, even if the flight itself is excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFiXReaYEj8

It is certainly an engineering accomplishment, but calling it a 'car' is a stretch. Do you believe that this vehicle has a 100kWh battery pack in it? When Tesla demonstrates this vehicle driving two hundred miles on city streets and recharging to repeat the test, I'll gladly change my mind.

Until then, this is simply a purpose built drone, powered by compressed air to perform specific tricks in order to grift and hype up interest in the company.

I can buy a drone from DJI that performs more impressive flying maneuvers than what Tesla showed.

This is the correct take

Here’s a 30 minute interview with Tesla VP of engineering looking up close at the battery pack, motor, cooling system. Definitely seems like a real EV to me. They also look up close at the thruster pressure vessel and exhaust system.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=22rvpUecLts

That’s not the same vehicle that did the tricks — the “Rocket” version has many downward-facing vents, and presumably a larger tank for pressurised gas and a much smaller battery capable of sustaining the suction but not much more.

The emphasis on using optimus leg parts for actuators is interesting, given that they're also still under development...

is it real if you can't drive it on any public streets legally

It's not a flying car in the way that anyone ever imagined growing up. When people think flying cars they think blade runner or fifth element. Not a car that can jump, interesting as a jumping car may be.

And frankly I'm not sure the engineering is all that impressive. I'm sure someone could've done similar a long time ago, there's just no point to it beyond, well, the parlor trick. Even millionaires have no use for a single seat, road-illegal vehicle with no storage that happens to be able to jump

No, but people will definitely buy the thrust version for the track, if it's ever built. (And assuming most tracks and drag strips even allow using the thrusters, which I doubt.)

Will that be allowed in any multi-person-near-each-other track day? Exhaust that pushes must be very dangerous to be behind if you’re drafting and waiting for the next passing lane.

Yeah, very unlikely at most tracks. Perhaps at drag strips, but I doubt that too. If it ever exists it'll be a trick for rented tracks or runways.

I recall attending a top fuel drag racing event. One was pop-popping up to the start line. Then the tree turned green, and the driver hit it.

Unfortunately, he had the silly thing in reverse. It launched backwards maybe a hundred feet. The drivers reflexes to shut off the engine were outstanding. If it had gone much further, it would have climbed up one of the full grandstands.

I never stand behind a drag car with the engine running, or in front, or in the plane of rotation of the engine. (I've seen a few engine blowups, and parts often go out sideways.)

It's a limited edition collectible. Some people will buy it.

Yeah just the same way the rides at amusement parks are that go faster and higher. The end result won't change anything for the rest of us. It's entertainment.

I think I've seen some undergrad capstones also make flying cars that would never actually be produced or sold...

But they lacked a lot of the showmanship here.

You can basically engineer almost anything with enough money for a demo. It's a lot different to engineer something that'll actually get commercialized.

Sometimes I think this sub, being software heavy, downplays the achievements of their own field and overplays the achievements of other fields they lack experience in.

That’s a very generous interpretation of “flying” tbh.

It's a car with rocket thrusters attached. Mythbusters did it 20 years ago.

Mythbusters - JATO 3 Rocket Car Results https://youtu.be/cHUsGFGhfmk

Ron Patrick's beetle is more interesting. https://www.ronpatrickstuff.com (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37778531 - 139 comments) ... He was trying to sell it a couple of years ago ( https://www.motortrend.com/news/jet-powered-vw-new-beetle-fo... and it has some photos that no longer load on his original site)

It is a few notches beyond sitting in a wagon and emptying a fire extinguisher to go for a little ride, and about as practical, but I do not see what makes it some incredible feat of engineering.

In what way is this an engineering achievement? Presumably two thousand years ago people understood that flight requires lift. It's not like anything novel is occurring here.

It's a joke. A clever trick. To what end? ... absolute joke.

Do you know what gets me excited? Have you seen the new Porsche Mission S?

Form, function and beauty ...

> Do you know what gets me excited? Have you seen the new Porsche Mission S?

It's a glorified Beetle.

It is an actual car, though.

Yep, and Koenigsegg Agera is just a glorified Ford T.

Agreed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrqcHKIPRWg

They needed a test harness for lunar/mars landers!

> It’s an incredible engineering accomplishment

Yeah just like the Tesla screen in the car. Quite a problem since it lacks physical buttons.

I dunno. We have all kinds of flying machines. What exactly makes this a car? The shape?

It drives on everyday streets.

Does it?

Not the one that was demonstrated yesterday.

They couldn’t get a permit from Hot Wheels in time for a better demonstration.

If you want that, Terrafugia has been around for a while - but you still need to drive it to an airport to deply the wings and take off. (Flies for rather more than 3.5 seconds, too :-)

my honda civic can fly too if I floor it on the hill nearby.

Very impressive. You might even call it Full Self Flying

Flying car… That was Aerocar back in what, 2011?

Basically, KITT from Knight Rider turned real.

Rockets have been around for a hundred years.

More like 700 years.

He probably meant liquid fueled rockets.

What's the accomplishment here? It's 50 years old tech.

Show me a video from 50 years ago of a car doing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p5LxFdc-Qg

It's just plain impressive, even if it's not practical.

It's a thruster and a fan, in a car made specifically for this stunt, that won't be produced and has all passenger seats occupied by high pressure gas tanks that can do this like once.

Which of these is impressive or novel?

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