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Old 05-06-2015, 10:15 AM
cosmicfish cosmicfish is offline
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Some quick, itemized thoughts:

Pros:

(1) VTOL capability. For the Project, this is a pretty big advantage.

(2) Silence. More of a perk, really, as TMP is not likely (as originally planned) to be doing a ton of missions with this platform where noise at ground level is a significant concern. And in those where it IS a concern, there are steps that can be taken to mitigate the problem - the military has been dealing with ground noise for decades.

Non-issues:

(1) Built around electric motors. The cost of modifying any given vehicle to electric motors is just not that big, especially compared to the costs of acquiring the vehicle in the first place and giving it a fusion plant. The modern problems associated with this have more to do with batteries and energy than anything else, and these are non-issues for the Project.

Cons:

(1) This is just a technology demonstrator. The Bell X-1 was the first aircraft to intentionally break the sound barrier, but we never built any more after that because it was just designed to do that one thing. Instead we built other supersonic vehicles based on what we learned from the X-1. Likewise, the GL-10 may lead to superficially-similar vehicles, but they won't be the GL-10! An MPV might be based on the GL-10, but would require a ton of development that could be skipped by using an already-practical platform instead.

(2) Not really flying yet. Just means we don't really know much about it. Might be a terrible vehicle, it can take a lot of post-prototype work to make something practical. And we just don't have a lot of important info, like the actual payload or speed.

(3) Scaling issues. Making something VTOL is a pretty big design constraint, especially if you are going the "light" option like this is. If you want something big enough to have a significant payload you might want up with an enormous aircraft, and that may present problems that VTOL flight doesn't solve. The demonstrator has a 20' wingspan, 16hp, and an unknown payload. The Predator has a 48'+ wingspan, 115hp, and only 750lb of payload... and doesn't have to manage VTOL. Which reminds me...

(4) VTOL. It is an advantage, but it is also a disadvantage. VTOL takes a lot more power than conventional winged flight, which means that the same functional payload is going to require a much bigger vehicle than one which required a dirt runway or a chunk of old highway. And bigger vehicles are not inherently a good thing.
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