Aptera is gone for good. :'(

lester12483 said:
The Aptera design is nothing more than a cool looking car. Jay Leno has one, and a demo video on youtube.

It's far more than that. It has the best aerodynamics among cars ever, which extends its electric-only range to reasonable distances.
 
SlipStreamIndRevelation.jpg


Hillhater said:
lester12483 said:
. They should form a strategic alliance with Tesla for charging and battery swapping.
:shock: :lol: Why would Tesla want to do that ??
What have Zaptera got to offer Tesla in exchange for use of their charge network ?

1237705899_96c4753b54.jpg


That would be giving away one huge competitive advantage that you know Tesla will only operate as a lossleader. What indeed would be the point?

You know how you search and search but you just can't find the perfect match of a head on shot? You're just going to have to do some extrapolating, but here's what the Aptera would look like as a flying car. As in it's been done, in more than one way.

TransitionFlyingLookingUpWM-Med-219x175.jpg
 
Dauntless said:
Chalo said:
The angle of attack on their "airfoil" looks to me like it wouldn't create any lift at all.

HUH???? Name one thing about it that doesn't look it's intended to be a flying car? (Take this 'Enough Rope' while I catch my breath.) Why did you say "Airfoil" if you didn't think it was generating lift? Wouldn't you have said "Diffuser?"

The side view section of the Aptera's cabin is clearly some kind of airfoil. But if you drew a line from the center of its leading edge to its trailing edge, that line would be tilted towards the ground in front of the vehicle. Thus its angle of attack is negative, opposing whatever lift the airfoil would otherwise generate at speed. Whether it results in downforce is an open question, but I'm guessing the bias would be towards downforce rather than lift. Superficial impressions one way or the other can be incorrect due to complicating factors like ground effect.

I imagine that before the folks at Aptera made body molds, they did both fluid dynamics simulations and wind tunnel tests to get whatever results they were looking for.

Airfoils don't have to develop lift. A symmetrical airfoil at zero angle of attack and moving parallel to the ground would develop no lift.
 
That's simply a best case scenario to have a lift or downforce free surface. Very unlikely. Overall that's very much a lift shape on that car.

How trusting of YOU, of all people, to feel sure they did all this testing. I'm not expecting there to have been any serious FEA or CFD on most of the XPrize contestants, let alone tests of it.

[youtube]BBxFvKQNUko[/youtube]
 
Dauntless said:
How trusting of YOU, of all people, to feel sure they did all this testing. I'm not expecting there to have been any serious FEA or CFD on most of the XPrize contestants, let alone tests of it.

I worked for a private space venture for almost six years; they would not have invested in production tooling without having done their homework. Heck, we did both simulations and IRL testing without having any production tooling on the line. During that 5+ year time span, we spent a similar amount of money to what Aptera was counting on, but didn't get.

I have no special knowledge about Aptera, but I do know that given their scale, budget, and ambitions, they most likely would have done both simulations and testing. I mean, efficiency was their whole game. They'd at least want to know drag figures, and lift or negative lift data would have been a by-product of the same tests.
 
I still say you're showing some uncharacteristic "Blind Faith" in these people doing the right thing. Afterall, if it wasn't the aerodynamics that caused it to dance around happy feet unlike similar 3 wheel efforts, then what was it? Was the kingpin castor going the wrong way?

I meant to put this in the last post but forgot. It's called the Moon Walker, I don't think there's a full size one. They're saying it's for "Houston's straight freeways." Only been there a few times, but I thought the freeways there were like the rest of Texas and went in circles. They say the body will readjust to take any drag off at freeway speed until you put the brakes on, but that car will have to go around a high speed curve or change lanes sometime, then it'll wobble like an Aptera. Needs to deactivate when steering, too.

Houston-Moon-Walker-future-vehicle-01.jpg
 
Like Lazarus !....Aptera rises again !?
How did we miss this last fall ?
It seems a little crowdfunding has transfused a little life into an old idea.....with a few revisions. :roll:
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1125542_crowdfunded-aptera-super-efficiency-ev-will-use-in-wheel-motors
 
Yeah, the crowd of people throwing money at that thing is growing. Not sure that 3D model in the article means anything.

The basic design collected over $30 million back in the 70's when those criminals and excons were calling it the 'Dale' and having mob hits in the parking lot. Were they really trying to pass off lawnmower engines as from BMW motorcycles? Does Jay Leno reallly have one he can drive?

18jawapwj7yenjpg.jpg
 
Found this from a local TV station today:
[youtube]M12lM9Ie6rg[/youtube]
 
Interesting video on the planned Aptera skin cooling effect. Not sure why this didnt embed.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIyJ2BmHPQI[/youtube]
 
Um... thanks Hillhater? I see a window and a play button in your post but its giving me an error message.
 
TrotterBob said:
Um... thanks Hillhater? I see a window and a play button in your post but its giving me an error message.

Trim away the URL except for the specific video code. In your case, kIyJ2BmHPQI is the text you need to embed the video.

[youtube]kIyJ2BmHPQI[/youtube]
 
What do you guys think?

The founders bought back the tech and are restarting the company and it seems to be going really well this time around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIuv_igjfLI&list=PL4XEZHSntb5EWvaYHynVkeqQxf9hMy6MJ
 
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