YouTopia

He should come to the UK... we're there already.

Tunnel Vision

Said it before, but electrification allows old ideas to be revisited in ways that were simply not feasible prior... as this maritime cargo drone that Hopflyt has developed amply demonstrates.

Tunnel or channel wings are not new, but were previously married to conventional reciprocating aero-engines and the problem was ~ and remains ~ the fact there is no easy way to fix a conventional engine to what is effectively a missing wing-spar.

The trick with the model above is that the inverted-arch section of the wing vectors along with the motor (around the spar) for hovering flight; meaning that allied with an onboard turbine generator, the aircraft is ideal to meet logistical tasks at sea.

Expect to see more of such generators whilst awaiting ongoing improvements to the energy density of batteries, incidentally. They can already be purchased online from Chinese retail platforms, and will undoubtedly evolve themselves as a short-term fix that may (like much else) prove to be a long-term remedy to range and endurance issues bedevilling electrical drones used offshore.

Electrifying

There are bright-ish spots in the continuing decline of the UK, and I say bright-ish because no sooner than this tech was perfected at a university college in Oxford, it would be bought up by Mercedes: revenue of business here being diverted to states abroad at the soonest opportunity.

But as the UK powers down, electrical motors are clearly powering up and this axial flow type producing an insane 1000hp whilst weighing just twelve kilos or 25lb.

The inventor Ray Kurzweil said that we should design for the future, for what might be rather than just what happens to be.

In view of advances in motors, batteries and solar power you might want sea-going drones to run on petrol for the current range and endurance that it would provide; but going forward you'd be equally insane not to transition to electrical power at the soonest.

Whether it applies to EVs however is something else altogether: growing numbers are reverting to gasoline upon the sooner-than-expected expiry of their EVs, when they realise they're buying into a subscription model instead of just a car.

En-Lightning

Snap this at an industrial estate occupying the former RAF Burtonwood, which was the principal hub for moving troops or materiel from the US to Europe during WW2.

At first questioning whether we've the cash for such nostalgia, but on reflection it is, the artist responsible for any number of imaginative memorials of this kind.

Whether or not the P50 was stationed at Burtonwood I'm unsure, but who cares?

What I especially like about it is that it is two-dimensional, and from any angle but this you'd never tell.

Interesting fact: French aviator and author St Exupery fought during WW1 and yet persuaded them to let him fly in WW2 as well. He was last seen over the Med in one such aircraft, designed for reconnaissance instead of interception. The Spitfire also fulfilled such a role, it like this being faster than ever deprived of its cannons.

Monomania #17: Weight Watchers

I try to do at least a little each day, even when life is making other plans.

So here at the weigh-in our 2.10m craft tips the scales at a round 4.0 kilos (9.0 lb).

Were I to compare it to a boat that you might sit in, increasingly there is a trend toward blow-moulded unsinkable types like the: https://www.whaly.com/whaly210

Even without a motor it weighs and costs some ten times more, and as a designer I would be aiming for a monoski to travel between five and ten times faster and with the same step-change in efficiency: albeit powered electrically.

I do like boats you sit in, counting a GRP canoe as a best-ever birthday present.

Nonetheless the sad thing is ~ in the surveillance society we choose to live in ~ it is all going to be about driving things at sea from a screen or a sofa for most intents.

But let's not dwell on that and take its picture next, shall we?

The Whaly 2.10 is also twice the width ~ quote 'WHERESWHALY?' for a discount.

Long Tale

A cursory visit to any transport museum ~ this one in Berlin ~ will show how from the get-go every outboard motor was at least a short-tail: think drink-blenders but bigger.

If you want a reason why innovation on water is regulated out of existence here in Europe, Google 'bye-laws and speed restrictions on Loch Lomond' and spend some time with the family testing each other ~ and I choose this stretch because it is the most egregious example of lockdowns on water throughout the UK.

Then go check out the videos on tuned-up long-tails in Bangkok; remembering to wear safety-goggles, hard-hat and high-visibility tabard if viewing in Europe.

The unit of choice for driving down your waterway of choice at manic speed is a stock 1500cc engine previously powering Toyota's people-carrier ~ the Japanese producing the most reliable engines, each a gift to petrol-heads the world over.

Happy paddle-boarding, losers!

Monomania #16: First Principles

I've done a Rachel Reeves* and said that we'd mount both motors forward-facing, then done a U-turn and mounted them as I did earlier.

But why... I ask for you?

(a) there's more room here to get an Allen key in there to replace propellers

(b) it look's better

(c) it provides for a firmer basis upon which to set the boat upright for storage

(d) just one cross-bar impedes the propellers' efflux and not two

(e) should we test a rudder, it can replace that second motor on the rear spar

Look though at how I fitted that second cross-bar: by laying the boat inverted on a few chocks (so that the first motor clears the floor) and setting the second motor in place before driving screws in from either side.

Incidentally I fitted the rear-most motor-mount with a pair of screws at either end, so as to stop it twisting: should it do so propellers will clash and we'll end in tears.

Rachel Reeves: a chancellor unable to reduce welfare or cut taxes as promised.