"[Uber's] electrically powered [concept aircraft] with two rotors for vertical flight and one for horizontal flight [...] is reminiscent of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor, where the propellers transition from vertical flight to horizontal – the difference being Uber’s rotors are fixed."
Whut the funk??!? How is this in any way similar??? Uh, correct me if I don't see something, but to me this is like saying something like: "Tesla Model 3 is similar to the Caterpillar CS-533E drum roller [1] — the difference being Tesla has 4 wheels"...
I think the main difference here is that in the Autogyro and Gyrodyne the rotor is basically acting as a wing (either through autorotation for the Autogyro or the application of limited power for the Gyrodyne) while everything I have seen of the Uber fantasy and similar drone scale-ups uses powered rotors for most of the vertical lift.
Similar in the sense that they have the same manufacturer I guess so there might be some shared tech. But other than that I agree with you, the Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft whereas the Uber aircraft is not. Like you say it's more of an Autogyro.
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"[Uber's] electrically powered [concept aircraft] with two rotors for vertical flight and one for horizontal flight [...] is reminiscent of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor, where the propellers transition from vertical flight to horizontal – the difference being Uber’s rotors are fixed."
Whut the funk??!? How is this in any way similar??? Uh, correct me if I don't see something, but to me this is like saying something like: "Tesla Model 3 is similar to the Caterpillar CS-533E drum roller [1] — the difference being Tesla has 4 wheels"...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_CS-533E
I'm in no way an aircraft person, but if I were to try to look for similarities to something, the following are more like what I'd think of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrodyne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogyro
I think the main difference here is that in the Autogyro and Gyrodyne the rotor is basically acting as a wing (either through autorotation for the Autogyro or the application of limited power for the Gyrodyne) while everything I have seen of the Uber fantasy and similar drone scale-ups uses powered rotors for most of the vertical lift.
Similar in the sense that they have the same manufacturer I guess so there might be some shared tech. But other than that I agree with you, the Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft whereas the Uber aircraft is not. Like you say it's more of an Autogyro.