Gulp
- Thread starter Shadow Reaper
- Start date
Do they come with LTI? ;-)
Definitely need insurance for that kind of ride!
Definitely need insurance for that kind of ride!
Some of those look a lot like fun. Others remind me of meat grinders, that wouldn't be quite so fun.
I had no idea you could generate enough lift with this kind of setup!
That is one of the gadgets I would actually use. The Zapata Flyboard looks like great fun, until you die.
I recall the Solo Trek XFV from back in the 90's seemed super stable and flyable, until their test pilot died and the company closed shop.
But for flying in SC, I'd take the Flyboard for sure.
What these personal air vehicles need is a reliable survivable lifeguard system which works every time, like fighter aircraft have zero-zero ejector seats (zero mph, zero altitude).
It doesn't matter how good/efficient/practical they are, Until someone can reliably survive a mechanical/power failure in a personal air vehicle they're not going to be a viable option. A motorbike can be fallen off with survivable injuries, a Paramotor can just glide to the ground, but anything without the ability to reach teh ground in a controlled manner without power after, for example, a bird strike would survive the incident just like airships didn't after the Hindenburg and similar lighter-than-air incidents.
Off the top of my head, some kind of deployable air-cushion bodybag/ram-air airfoil system combination...?
It doesn't matter how good/efficient/practical they are, Until someone can reliably survive a mechanical/power failure in a personal air vehicle they're not going to be a viable option. A motorbike can be fallen off with survivable injuries, a Paramotor can just glide to the ground, but anything without the ability to reach teh ground in a controlled manner without power after, for example, a bird strike would survive the incident just like airships didn't after the Hindenburg and similar lighter-than-air incidents.
Off the top of my head, some kind of deployable air-cushion bodybag/ram-air airfoil system combination...?
what these personal air vehicles are missing is the everyone can afford it price point.. ohh i might die.. but 200 bucks? where do i sign?
bedoinitusa
Space Marshal
I’m reminded of the original Springwalker exomechanical leg stilts from back in the 90’s. Someone designed and made a pair of backward bent knees that go where your feet are and when you wore them you were a meter taller and could run at 60 mph. Trouble was when people fell a meter at 60 mph, they tended to die.
Air bags might have worked there too. I think the creator went off to design a powered armoured version and might be the same guy who became Boston Dynamics, who builds the robots for DoD.
Air bags might have worked there too. I think the creator went off to design a powered armoured version and might be the same guy who became Boston Dynamics, who builds the robots for DoD.
It literally looks like it's ready to eat you alive.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2DQKeS8EGU