Posted on 06/16/2011 12:13:17 AM PDT by Immerito
What goes 173 mph at 10,000 feet that you ride like a motorcycle? It's either a Star Wars speeder bike, which doesn't exist, or this hoverbike invented by some Australian dude, which actually does. And you don't even need a pilot's license to fly it.
Chris Malloy's prototype hoverbike has so far not done anything but hover while tied to the ground, but that is in no way stopping its designer from making all kinds of wildly optimistic projections about its performance and availability. Expect this thing to be able to travel at upwards of 170 mph, and you can take it to 10,000 feet (or even higher, with oxygen), although you'll probably have more fun whipping around trees down low, just make sure and look out for hooligans wielding light sabers.
Since it's classified as an ultralight, you won't technically need a pilot's license, although a parachute will likely be a good idea. And for better or worse, the hoverbike is shaping up to be affordable to the point where people who really shouldn't be riding around on one of these will probably be able to: a production run of 100 a year will peg them at $40,000 each, and if 1,000 are ordered, that cost could drop to something comparable to a performance motorcycle. Yeah, having everybody commuting to work on these things would probably be a fiasco, but who cares. It's a hoverbike, man!
SWEEEEET!
It’ll probably be illegal to use here in America, though.
Frickin’ Washington doesn’t think us little people are capable of crossing the street without their assistance.
Videos coming soon
•We have seen a lot of visits recently and realize that some of you have come back to see if we have updated the videos page. We did hope to film the last test flight un-tethered, but unfortunately we needed to rebuild the propeller gearboxes due to unforeseen localized stress on a section of the mounting points. A quick design fix – but one that takes time and money to be re-manufactured and re-assembled.
•After the re-build we will conduct one more tethered test before we release the bike from the ground. We will have a new control system to test then, and we also need to learn to fly the bike (one way to look at this, is trying to fly a helicopter for the first time without an instructor)
that's the video I want to see...
Oh boy....I laughed hard enough to wake the family when I read that.
This ought to be real good entertainment, don'tcha think? Can't wait ;-)
Heh!!
“Hold muh beer and watch thEEAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!”
What goes 0 mph at 0 feet off the ground? This hoverhoax.
Looks like it at least has potential. Hope nobody gets killed while testing the thing. lol
These guys are liable to make more money selling videos of the first test flight, than sales of the contraption itself.
Since it's classified as an ultralight, you won't technically need a pilot's license
I don’t know about Australia but in the US this aircraft could not be classified as an Ultra-light.
With the speed and altitude he plans for it I don’t believe it could meet the requirements of an ultra-light.
It has been a long time since I read about them but from memory I believe that ultra-lights were limited to 55 knots (about 70 mph) and under 1000 feet
I'll admit that I didn't bother to read at the link, but on its face, a "hover bike" sounds pretty implausible, hence the jokes.
Yeah.
The Skycar didn’t get much farther than the testing.
But with the powerful engines in these modern motorcycles zipping around, I wouldn’t put it past someone with the tools, garage space and know-how to try something similar.
I want one!
Perhaps I should check the article for some details on how this thing is engineered. I'm having a hard time picturing how you could build a flying cycle, unless you had four rotatable fans, spread wide enough for stabilization and propulsion.
Ok, I finally clicked the link, and I can’t see how the rider could maintain lateral stability with only two fans, front and back.
I also can’t see how you would accomplish forward thrust with this thing. Doesn’t look like the fans are rotatable.
That looks really stable. You could probably climb on, go to sleep, and the thing would fly itself.
HAHAHA.
It has two big-ass fans for getting off the ground and it looks like there are two small fans, underneath the seating are, presumably for stabilization and propulsion.
In principle, it should work, but I question this model being able to go 170 mph at 10,000 feet.
I’d need a video of it doing that before I believe it.
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