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Would You Use a Personal Flying Vehicle, if the Riding Position was Terrifying?

Zeva Aero takes a fresh design approach with their Zero Personal Air Vehicle

By Rain Noe - November 29, 2021

in Tech

Every personal flying vehicle design we've seen mimics an existing vehicle's riding convention: You're either sitting down as you would in a car, airplane or helicopter, or in some cases, straddling a seat as you would with a motorcycle.

Startup Zeva Aero departs from convention with the radical design of their Zero Personal Air Vehicle. Their design brief was not to create a vehicle that would convey you comfortably; instead, the Zero's mission is you get you from point A to B as quickly as possible—speeds of up to 160 MPH, the company says--and within a minimal footprint. Thus the vehicle they've dreamt up…

…features this as the riding position:

At rest, the Zero stands at an angle, resting on two fixed feet. The company points out that this allows the vehicle to fit neatly into a parking space.

It's not quite clear how exactly you mount and demount the vehicle, but this is what it would look like in flight, at least in theory:

The video shows animations of the flight experience:

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One intriguing possibility suggested by the company is that buildings of the future could have these mounted to individual boarding gates on any floor:

The idea of true door-to-door intracity travel sounds novel. I just don't think I could get over the Superman flying position and a view that's gotta be terrifying.

o

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Micah (Ian M.) White

3 years ago

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I'm glad I wasn't the only person who thought Flying Flapjack~ But, this actually reminds me more of the conceptual civilian Flapjack from the May 1947 issue of Mechanix Illustrated, with it's backyard STOL landing strip and tilting cockpit:
The more things change...

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Nathan D.

3 years ago

Z

1Z

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Name six vehicles that weren't terrifying to most people at the time they were initially designed.

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Tucker Drake

3 years ago

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1Z

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I'm reminded of the Vought XF5U AKA the "Flying Flapjack." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_XF5U

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