Anything this dangerous-looking has got to be fun.
I mean, that's somewhere on the Cool-O-Meter between surfing on a cruise missile through a giant lightning storm and riding a bucking saber-toothed tiger bareback over a pit full of flaming sharks.
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...radioactive flaming sharks!
With lasers!
See, while there's nothing wrong with using stealth choppers...
Come on, Team Six. This is clearly the better option. Get your gear on, chuck some Wagner on your iPod, and there is much epic to be had. Much.
Oh... THAT could be so much fun! :-)
I like the idea, but I think the gummint has already proven how untenable it is, back in the 50's.
Todays microprocessors could probably react quickly enough to make it functional, but hovering at ground effect distances would be about the limits of its capability. Still, looks like fun.
Og,
Pffft! Nay-sayers like you told the guy who wanted to leap over seventeen flaming Greyhound buses on a moped that "It can't be done" too...
lol.
just think how much fun it will be to flip it over and have all those ponies jam your head into the turf!;)
How do you guys keep your sharks lit? Mine keep going out.
Replace the water in the tank with lighter fluid. Or rum.
Get away from that before you rip your head off!
But Mom!!!
Gerry
Og, I hate to admit it: with smart avionics, that thing could be made not merely flyable but it could fake stability. What Uncle Sam spent fortunes to do for the Stealth fighter, this widget could apply.
Heck, if its responsive enough, the low CG (compared to the singe-housing 60's one-man flying platforms) might even make small-arms fire practical while mounted. The horse pistol returns! (Just remember the problem with that).
Huh.
I knew Piasecki's program at least had prototypes, but I didn't realize they had so much untethered free flight time...
http://www.piasecki.com/geeps_pa59k.php
http://www.piasecki.com/geeps_pa59h.php
"Og, I hate to admit it:"
No hate required. I'm pretty sure I could write the algorithm myself, I've no doubt you could.
Actually, most of the work has already been done:
http://tlb.org/scooter.html
The Segway algoritm is pretty simple (sample routine shown in ther linked article) and it would translate to fan power fairly readily. You just need to move 1d motion into 2d motion. It would all fit on a single board the size of a deck of cards.
The problem is with flight; this would hover but not fly without a lot more power and a lot bigger fans. Not that more power and bigger fans would be a bad thing. At that HP and rotor size it relies far too much on ground effect. Ever drive a hovercraft? Neoteric in Terre Haute gives lessons. Lots of fun. Highly reccomended.
That looks sooooo cool. And it moves motorcycle accidents to a whole new level of damage capability = )
Regardless of the amount of horsepower or rotor size, it's a catastrophe waiting to happen...
But at the same time, we live in a world where people strap microturbines to their boots and shove a bladder of gasoline down their trousers and then jump out of balloons wearing wingsuits, so no matter how wildly dangerous it is, there'll be some magnificent fool ready to saddle up and ride to glory.
"Regardless of the amount of horsepower or rotor size, it's a catastrophe waiting to happen..."
innit grand?;)
I might not go for the first ride, or even the seventieth, but I'll be in line wating to see Johnny Knoxville ride one sure as hell.
WV: Uncingat. Even I can't make that work.
Where do you mount the minigun?
WANT!!!ELEVENTY!!!
Awesome.
This HAS to be one of the early stepping stones to getting Star Wars speeder bikes...
Cool.. but where's the fuel tank? That probably guzzles fuel like a tank...
"so no matter how wildly dangerous it is, there'll be some magnificent fool ready to saddle up and ride to glory."
*raises hand*
It's almost certainly suicide but I can't think of a better way to go.
I promise to fly it into the crash as best I can. And if you can get a bunch of tard-tastic political types (but I repeat myself) to all stand together I'll even aim for 'em.
BGM
want ...
Insert snarky Star Wars comments here.
One of the bigger design flaws was pointed out in the youtube video comments. Center of gravity. The seat should probably be lowered a bit compared to the fans, so a heavy rider doesn't topple the whole thing.
Also of note no video of it being flown, and on all the photos where it's airborne, it's tethered to the ground on four sides.
And yes, fuel tank looks a bit on the small side for such a beast.
If it works perfectly though(or when they get it to, if ever), then I would love to ride one, at least once.
I see the applications header lists search and rescue. Would that be as searcher or searchee?
WV:howns-De howns will jest follow de smoke.
If that thing cranks out the db's anything like the airboats the goodoldboys around here play with of a weekend, they can forget about the "stealth" thing.
And it's nothing like the Jetsons car I've been waiting for these fifty. frickin'. years.
But they could recruit all the test pilot/riders they need from the crotchrocket jockeys that inflict themselves on I-4 (with it occasionally inflicting them), and when they get it up and running - or running and up as it were - yeah, I'd give it a go.
AT
Anyone else notice the 106mm recoilless rifle tube in the Piasecki photos mounted on the PA59H flying down the dirt road?
Doubtless, never tested, but mounted just the same. Ain't it cool?
France had one -a 75mm- mounted on a freakin' Vespa!
Re: fuel burn - specs say 30 liter std. fuel tank and 30 l/hr fuel burn,
so 1 hr endurance with std. tanks, and 2hr with extended tanks. Sounds reasonable, not a cross-country machine anyway.
"Aerial Cattle mustering"? How often do those Aerial Cattle have to be mustered, anyway?
Major James T. McCudden, V.C., D.S.O. & Bar, M.M., Croix de Guerre, etc., had to make forced landings twice due to wooden propellers coming apart. One instance occurred when during an aborted maneuver, his ammunition drums went flying over his top wing and through (literally) the four-blade pusher prop of his de Havilland D.H.2. In his words, "There was a mighty scrunch and terrific vibration as three out of my four propeller blades disappeared in a cloud of splinters."
It was a good thing that the broken bits of prop blade were behind Major McCudden when they detached themselves.
I noticed that the props on that little scooter are made of wood. Here's hoping no FOD goes through the props. The pilot would have a difficult time controlling the vehicle with his body separated in the middle.
BoxStockRacer
I keep hearing the "Johnny Quest" theme when I see this thing.
Bet Race could fly that sucker.
Race can fly anything!
Almost as cool ... but this guy will sell you one right now.
Oh BABY!! Want it so badly, but...
I didn't think a BMW twin mill could generate that kind of lift - and (2.) I'd wear my dirtbike Sidi's instead of tennis-shoes - those exposed ankles in pic #12 (img_0627) look like twig-sticks, and (3.) I've stood on the asphalt when a rescue 'copter has landed and loaded an unfortunate corner-carver, and I wonder how much fresh air you're gonna be getting in the bucolic surroundings of pic #7. without a filtered-mask or a fresh air supply.
But it's pure genius.
DirtCrashr:
appears that the airflow in and out of those ducted fans is way different from what a helicopter produces. No blade tip vortices that generate most of the debris movement by helicopters.
I think I would have gone for BMW's new superbike engine. Yeah, it weighs more, with water-cooling, but twice the power!
It needs to have "Balance" in its' name, 'cause that is going to be nothing but a balancing trick.
Will
I've been thinking about how to get back in the air without an FAA medical certificate. I don't think this is it. If he gets it to fly, I'll be impressed, but the climb from takeoff to high enough to use a parachute would have too big a pucker factor for me.
richard:
maybe one of those small aircraft emergency ballistic 'chutes.
Will
Will:
Nothing short of a true zero-zero ejection seat would really do the job. This thing does not appear to have any unpowered flight mode. At low altitude it would have the same margin for mechanical failure as a rocket pack or a Hawker Harrier jet in hover mode, ie. none.
On the other hand, I could strap on a helmet and get shot out of a cannon. At least I'd be airborne, that would be fun.
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