Aviation 2050 Vision *sOT*

by stabbim , Des Moines, IA, USA, Saturday, June 29, 2013, 10:23 (4176 days ago) @ Mid7night

The drone was pretty cool. I hope the real version (if there ever is one) goes a little higher than what was depicted - that thing would have been very easy to shoot down at that height.

Question - some of the rotor aircraft shown had a sort of ring structure enclosing their rotor blades. Anyone know whether that is purely a safety mechanism (to prevent the rotors from contacting structures and/or faces), or whether there is some aerodynamic benefit?

I thought the medivac bed thing was pretty neat. It was hard to tell what mechanism they were envisioning bringing it up to the main aircraft - maybe it's electromagnets or something?