I’ve been following these kinds of personal flight solutions for half century. Growing up outside NYC, where several millions commute each work day into the Big Apple, and as a part of the transit industry, I’ve always seen the use case for wealthy execs who take a train and therefore have about four hours commute each day. Who wouldn’t want to replace that with twenty minutes in and twenty out? All you need is a heliport atop your building (there are dozens) and the right kind of ride.
The Doroni has a lot going for it. Maybe more than they know. NASA designed a superconducting ducted fan for this kind of application almost twenty years ago. The benefit is in part that it’s more efficient but electric motors are all pretty efficient. The big advantage is you reclaim all the wasted space at the center of the fan, because the motor is in the duct. They’re about 15% higher thrust than this solution, so they’d pick up higher top speed and about 20 additional miles of range.
And, those Italians, man every time they design an aircraft it is just beautiful. I think beauty is held in higher esteem in Italian engineering circles than here in the very pragmatic US.
Who would not want this parked in the back yard?
View: https://youtu.be/YqXCHkByZKY?si=SxZuLlyFCy6RbRrg
The Doroni has a lot going for it. Maybe more than they know. NASA designed a superconducting ducted fan for this kind of application almost twenty years ago. The benefit is in part that it’s more efficient but electric motors are all pretty efficient. The big advantage is you reclaim all the wasted space at the center of the fan, because the motor is in the duct. They’re about 15% higher thrust than this solution, so they’d pick up higher top speed and about 20 additional miles of range.
And, those Italians, man every time they design an aircraft it is just beautiful. I think beauty is held in higher esteem in Italian engineering circles than here in the very pragmatic US.
Who would not want this parked in the back yard?
