Recently, the American "old horse" has been on the hot search again, why say again, after all, he is a hot search regular, and the domestic Weibo hot search alone has been on more than seventy times this year. This hot search is not because his company has made any treasures, but because of himself. On December 13, Time magazine announced that the 2021 person of the year was Elon Musk.
Edward Feltenthal, editor-in-chief of Time magazine, said of Musk that "almost no one can match his impact on life on Earth, or even on extraterrestrial life."
He did.
Some people say that 2021 is a year that belongs to Musk. Whether it is SpaceX, which makes Boeing tremble with fear, or Tesla, which occupies half of the electric car, it has achieved excellent results like never before. And the fruits of all these victories directly allowed Musk to become the world's richest man in the second half of this year, and his net worth once exceeded $300 billion.
As we all know, Musk has always been keen on the development of the aerospace field, and has come to the top, catching up with or even surpassing the established aerospace company Boeing in some aspects. Especially spaceX's manned spaceflight program, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has repeatedly sent astronauts into space. In September this year, Musk's SpaceX once again created a miracle, taking the lead in achieving space missions completed by national units.
However, people who love spaceflight so much have never been in the sky. This year, Virgin Galactic founder Branson and Amazon founder Bezos both took their own spaceships into space, and although it was only a short trip in space, it fulfilled the dream that countless people were looking forward to.
Of course, I guess Musk must have been dismissive of this, that is also called space, but the edge of space is just a wind. However, in a recent interview, Musk also made it clear that he would be in space at some point in time.
It seems that no one can resist the temptation of the sea of stars.
Musk, the Internet celebrity, any special behavior will attract attention, even if it is a haircut. However, a recent remark about Musk's flying car has also been retweeted by many people.
Musk: Flying cars is not realistic
Musk said that flying cars are noisy, windy and not safe. If the sky of the future is a group of flying cars that look like helicopters flying around, how anxious it would be.
Musk described flying cars as helicopters with wheels and didn't believe they could take over the sky.
Whether it is environmental issues or safety issues, these will restrict the development of flying cars.
Therefore, he firmly believes that the big cities of the future, especially the congested big cities, should be committed to the construction of highway and underground tunnel traffic.
In recent years, flying cars have been a key topic of discussion in the aviation sector. Many major automobile manufacturers have laid out flying cars, and there is no shortage of well-known domestic automobile manufacturers, such as Xiaopeng Automobile. There was also news that the flying car would be officially launched in 2024.
Nowadays, the flying cars at home and abroad are constantly developing and testing, and many manufacturers have announced their own flying cars. Some look like motorcycles, some are cars with wings, but no matter how much they change, they are in response to Musk's phrase "helicopter with wheels."
Still taking Xiaopeng Motors as an example, in late October, Xiaopeng Motors announced the sixth generation of flying cars, which are said to achieve mass production in 2024, with a price of less than 1 million yuan.
This flying car, which looks very similar to a conventional car, is capable of both land and air, with foldable propeller blades.
Are flying cars the future of civil aviation?
Will flying cars be the future of civil aviation? At least from a business point of view, it is the trend of the times, and from a practical point of view, there are still many problems that need to be solved.
As Musk said, one is environmental protection issues, noise, wind and other issues; the other is safety issues, aviation safety.
The flying cars developed now are generally the same as helicopters, with propeller blades, that is, "flying knives", which look scary. Moreover, the flight height of the flying car is certainly not high, which is equivalent to general aviation, and in the low-altitude range, most of them fly below an altitude of one kilometer, and once an accident occurs, the impact on the ground is extremely great.
Just like domestic general aviation, under the vigorous advocacy of the state in recent years, although the number has increased significantly, general aviation enterprises, general aircraft, general airports and general aviation pilots have made great progress, but the general aviation market is still very narrow, and many general aviation enterprises cannot support themselves.
The advent of flying cars also needs to face these problems head-on, and there will be more challenges, not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of policy.
From the perspective of the domestic general aviation market alone, even if the flying car is launched, it is difficult to harvest good results. The Chinese people's distrust of general aviation has long been in place.
This year, there have been many general aviation accidents, and most helicopters. This is the biggest blow to the development of general aviation.
Once the flying car is available, the old problems of the market, technology, equipment, talent and policies that have stuck the development of general aviation will happen to them again. Low altitude is a topic that flying cars cannot avoid.
Flying cars are still a long way to go, and there will be more challenges than helicopters!