>        Flying motorcycle the next roadable airplane?
> > Samson Motorworks claims it has the utmost in roadable aircraft with its
> new SkyBike. The SkyBike is a three-wheeled, two-seat motorcycle with a
> telescoping main wing and a canard. Powered by a shrouded single
> propeller driven by a rotary engine, the vehicle will supposedly fly at
> 130 mph although it hasn't flown yet. Read more /AOPA Pilot/ Editor in
> Chief Tom Haines' blog entry
> <http://blog.aopa.org/blog/?p=669&WT.mc_id=081128epilot&WT.mc_sect=gan>.
> > > http://samsonmotorworks.com/
> > > SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM
> I can't believe the editors of AOPA mag are so dumb.
> How are they going to build a telescoping spar with a shear web?
> Think about it.
> > The other thing is going to happen is it will crash as soon
> as they attempt a take off if they can get to take off speed.
> The main wing will stall long before the front wing stalls.
> Ask Burt Rutan.
> > The third thing is it will never reach take off speed as the
> front of the ducted fan is not open to the atmosphere.
> > I could go on and on.
> > AOPA mag will print any stupid press release sent to them.
> > > Paul Lamar

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No vertical stabilizer. I think the main reason for the main wing sweep
on the EZs is to get the vertical stabilzer / winglets farther aft.

Perry

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Paul

This looks more like an artist conceptual drawing. Probably an early  version.

tonys longez

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Yes exactly and it should be treated as the photo shop science fiction it really is instead of a viable aircraft. Apparently somebody at AOPA cannot tell the
difference. Popular Science has been indulging in this nonsense lately as well.
I canceled my subscription.

Paul Lamar

I'm not sure why these company's of late have been trying to produce flying cars and the like, and it's  realy funny when they do artist drawings of the vehicle landing on some busy street downtown. Not one of these vehicles seem like a viable solution for landing or taking off on a street. I'm now flying 208's for a canyon operator in Las Vegas. We have seven thousand + ft of runway with power lines on either end and that can get realy hairy. Now imagine some yahoo trying to take off or land from a street with power lines on either side of him and a stop light a thousand feet away, and lets not forget the buildings and gas stations (makes a pretty fireball when airplanes hit them). How about crosswind technique? screw that up on a two lane highway and you just killed a family of five. This probably sounds like a crazy scenario but you know some idiot will try it.  Companys that want to produce these types of vehicles are so busy trying to see if they can, they haven't stopped to think if they should. IMHO these vehicles are bad news for everyone flying real aircraft. I like the idea of using roads for runways during an emergency in an airplane but not for everyday departures and arrivals (oh yah those are called airports).

P.S. I like how the wing overhangs the center stripe.

Tony

Well modern technology such as carbon composites almost makes it possible.
Landing on streets would soon be outlawed as even helicopters have restriction
on where they can land. A lot of these ideas are not well thought out anyway
from an engineering point of view so they will never fly.

Here are two that are well thought out but I am not advocating landing on streets. One is primarily designed to get you around after you get to some remote airport without rental cars. The second is a VTOL that flies at high speed like a V22. This would be a sea change in general aviation as not only would it cut the size of airports required but it would improves the MPG and fly faster in general aviation aircraft. This is made possible by recent improvements to the all aluminum turbo compound Wankel engine.

http://www.rotaryeng.net/roadable.html
http://www.rotaryeng.net/VTOL.html

Paul Lamar