Okay, so the personal jetpack is pretty cool, but I think the personal jet wing is even cooler. Although it can’t (yet) launch you into the air, the four rocket engines (not sure if they’re rockets or jet turbines) bolted onto the carbon graphite wing provide enough thrust to propel the pilot horizontally for 4-6 minutes at 115 mph, at around 8000 ft (after you’ve jumped out of an airplane first). Landings are accomplished via parachute. Yeah, so maybe it’s not quite as practical or versatile as the personal jetpack, but doesn’t it look badass, especially with the folding wingtips? Vid (it’s in French, but you just want to see the thing in action, right?) after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
The guys at Gizmodo are in Dubai for an air show, and spotted this bit of news. Sheikh Rashid, the ruler of Dubai, just purchased the first unit of the Aerion Supersonic Business Jet. And some jet! Even at $80,000,000 the bird seems to be worth every penny. It’s able to sprint up to 1.6 Mach, and cruise at 1.5 Mach where allowed, which is pretty much only over oceans. At this speed though, an Atlantic crossing is done in just two hours. Over land, it can fly along at 0.98Mach in the USA (due to regulations) at a similar cost-per-mile than competing subsonic private jets; in other parts of the world, where regulations only require no sonic boom to reach ground, it can speed up to 1.1 Mach without a boom. Its twin Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 engines produce 19,600 pounds of thrust and it has a ceiling of 51,000 feet.
Expect delivery around 2014, and if you’re serious about getting one, you can leave a $250,000 deposit now. Then, you can call me and buy me lunch, you rich bastard.
Looking for ways to entertain yourself in the evenings? How about flying a fake flying saucer over metropolitan areas? That sounded like fun to Steve Zingali, who built himself a 3 foot wide reinforced foam flying saucer that’s remote controlled and can hit 40 mph thanks to a tiny electric motor. Does it work? I’d say so:
Soon, Orange County motorists were chasing strange lights in the sky. Orange County’s Mutual UFO Network was taking calls about erratic, flying objects. And the Web site UFOinfo.com was posting reports of “glowing orbs” in south Orange County. One 53-year-old man reported a large glowing ball that “appeared to drip fire.” It traveled about five miles in a few seconds, he said, and left an “acrid type odor” in the air.
[Inventor Steve Zingali] is now connecting a 7.4-volt lithium battery to a foam toy with flashing lights that make it appear to spin. He starts the propeller and sends it into the night sky above the Aliso Viejo Town Center. Voices rise as quickly as the UFO: “Oh my God.” … “UFO.” Shoppers gallop up the hill, including Haywood Bagley, who told his wife: “I hope they don’t start shooting. If I go down, you get in the car, Baby.” At 400 feet altitude, the UFO (which weighs about a pound) looks like a mammoth spacecraft miles away, dancing, diving, hovering, now flitting away. “Oh my gosh, did you see it? There was a UFO bigger than my house!”
“We’ve had strange calls – people reporting UFOs and strange sounds in the air,” says Lt. Rich Paddock, police chief for Aliso Viejo. “But they’re not doing anything illegal. There’s no ordinance that says it’s illegal to fly a super-double-secret, gyroscopic UFO in county airspace.”
You know what this really is, of course… The government is paying this guy to fly his fake super-double-secret gyroscopic UFO around to distract attention from the real mega-triple-classified überscopic UFOs. It’s a conspiracy, man, and you can be part of it for about $1000.
In September, I posted an article over at BotJunkie about a robot helicopter that reminded me a little bit of Airwolf. After that, I rented some Airwolf DVDs on Netflix, and now that I’m hooked on the show (okay, not really, I remembered it being way more awesome than it actually is), I just had to show you this working Airwolf helmet which is currently for sale on eBay. When I say “working,” it means that the helmet is a padded fiberglass custom motorcycle helmet that will, in fact, protect your head. It also features a speed visor, an LED targeting bar, and a specially designed battery pack. Whether the speed visor and LED targeting bar also work in some fashion is unspecified. The helmet itself is painted in the original Airwolf color, “Phantom Gray Effect.” Totally badass, and yours for the buy it now price of $900. A just because it’s Airwolf Airwolf video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Just within the last year, toy helicopters have become cheap and readily available, and now that some of the novelty has worn off, they’re starting to develop accessories, like this real-time camera downlink. A small camera in the nose of the Radio Control Camera Helicopter streams video back to the controller, where you view the footage on a 2 inch LCD. Alternately, cables are included to put the video on a TV (or record it). The helicopter itself is nothing special, with only 3 channels of control (forward and backward, left and right yaw, and up and down). The entire package costs only $200, which makes me think that it’s short range, the video is lousy, and it’s probably not going to go very far on a single charge. But hey, you’ve got to admit that it’s pretty cool for what it is.
Haven’t you always dreamed of having your own private plane? You know, nothing fancy, just a little single engined low-wing tail-dragger that you could cruise around in? Imagine it: “Cubicle tower, this is USB Two-Zero-Oscar-Golf-Zulu holding short on runway Desk, requesting takeoff clearance…” Now you can have that little plane, although getting takeoff clearance might pose a bit of a problem, since the engine is powered by a USB cable and it’s designed to function as a fan. It’s quite a clever design if you ask me, and as an aviation enthusiast, I’d be proud to own one whether it flies or not. Besides, I’m confident that sooner or later, someone will come out with a more powerful wireless USB version that will actually be able to take off and strafe your coworkers. Soon to be available from Kikkerland. Meantime, if you’d like something a little more powerful, there’s always this.
I’ll be honest: in the realm of sci-fi tech, I’d always thought of the personal jet pack as showing up after the flying car, neither of which would be making a realistic appearance anytime soon. Turns out I’m dead wrong: the personal jet pack that you can buy is set to be released December 11 of this year.
It may or may not surprise you to hear that jet packs (of a sort) are old news. Bell Aerosystems had a personal rocket belt back in the 1960s, and a few different companies are currently offering the same hydrogen peroxide powered sort of thing, including Tecaeromex, from whom you can buy a working version for $250,000. The downside of rocket belts is that they only get a maximum of 30 seconds flight time, and the fuel is expensive and dangerous. Bell Aerospace started working on an actual jet pack in the late 60s, which had a hypothetical flying time of 25 minutes and a top speed of about 80 mph, but dropped the project due to it’s complexity.
Luckily for us, Jetpack International (who has lots of experience with conventional hydrogen peroxide powered rocket packs) is working on a turbine powered jet pack with an estimated flight time of 19 minutes, with a range of 27 miles at a max altitude of 250 ft. Best news is that it runs on easily available and cheap jet fuel. The $200,000 price tag includes a training course, although it’s unclear what certification (if any) is required to operate a jet pack. Below is a video of one of Jetpack International’s conventional rocket belts, to give you an idea of how these things perform:
European company Astrium (prime contractors for the Ariane 5 rocket)has unveiled plans for a business jet sized spaceplane that is able to take off and land from conventional runways, while taking four people 100km up to experience 3 minutes of weightlessness and one heck of a view. A while back, there was a lot of buzz about spaceplanes as potential replacements for the space shuttle. On the face of it, it seems like the best answer to space travel: up and back in one vehicle, no extraneous rockets or fuel tanks like the shuttle, and no carriers like Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipOne. The US government, despite billions of dollars and several tries including the X-30 and the X-33/VentureStar (all canceled) has finally settled on Orion, which is basically a reincarnation of the Apollo expendable rocket and capsule concept. So yes, even if it makes sense in terms of cost and lift potential, we’re still going backwards.
Leave it to the private sector to come through with a viable spaceplane design. Astrium’s propulsion system consists of two air breathing engines plus one rocket engine, making it a true single stage, reusable spaceplane. The timetable is fairly aggressive, with the first commercial flights scheduled for 2012 at between $200,000 and $250,000 each. Enjoy the video:
I knew it all along! The US Army is working on flying saucer technology! I just wouldn’t have predicted it to be a British import… Apparently the army has awarded a contract to a British firm JLN Labs to develop a machine that can demonstrate the ability to “hover close to its control-ground station, providing a surveillance capability for convoys, security force bases and other roles.” The design is pretty innovative, based on an aeronautical principle called the Coanda Effect.
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