I think that’s just a product of poor controlling software. Looks like there’s no gyro sensors for stability, and I think he’s manually balancing the speed to hover. I had similar results flying a cheap RC helicopter.
As I recall, they could go, about ten minutes… if you could keep it in the air that long. I never could.
I did become quiet proficient at rebuilding the damned thing. Gorham made a helluva lot more money on me from spare parts, than he did from the helicopter itself.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we’ve got another hubless design. Though credit where credit’s due, this one actually works. I wouldn’t say it revolutionizes the world of transport (their words), but it doesn’t look to be a bad product either.
I’ve actually never been a fan of the wire wheel. I get the nostalgic charm, and interesting construction, but they just look fussy (and hard to clean)… but, that said, I think a black wire wheel could be interesting.
I agree they would be a painnn to clean, but they do work well on classic cars and remakes. For example the lovely Eagle Speedster looks just fine with them in silver. As well as the Morgan three wheeler.
Fabrication cost is fairly obvious. Not so much for a “concept” car, but if the overall feel of the design is based on the spoked wheel, the model offered to the public probably should have spoked wheels, n’est-ce pas?
My take on black spoked wheels is that the builder was either too pressed for time to disassemble them and have all the parts replated, or that he’s too cheap and simply rattle-canned them black; black hiding more sin than “chrome” or aluminum/silver.
The modern cast aluminum “hot rod” wheel in the picture I posted is loosely based on the wooden Model T wheel.
The Model T wheel was based on a late horse-drawn era mechanical wagon wheel called the “Sarven” wheel, patented in 1857; wooden spokes and segmented-rim “felloes” coupled with a steel hub. The savings was in the hub, both weight and fabrication time.
Prior to the Sarven design the hubs were turned from solid wood and the indivual spokes fit into hand-cut mortices in the hub. Hub diameter for a 36-48" diameter wheel was around 10"
This is from the Big Red S company, and I really respect their design effort (if not always the outcomes). Looks like this actually works so we can’t hate on it too much. Based on the parts I think its from the mid-90s…