Could this lead to the personal ‘copter that everyone’s said we should have had by now in our garages?



  1. steve says:

    hope he’s a good weatherman if any winds come along-goodbye.

  2. George says:

    Nice. I just don’t think using engine power to provide 100% of the machine’s lift is such a hot idea for manned flight in a fly-by-wire craft. Put a rack of electric-powered props on a fixed wing aircraft and you may have something. I need a failsafe for when the flight control software glitches.

  3. Stokes says:

    I would be afraid of one of the props would fly off and kill me… Just saying more than one prop would be greater the chance it would happen! lol

  4. Cursor_ says:

    Only the people who make these things fail to see how impractical they are.

    But when you have money and time on your hands I guess it is better than meth.

    Cursor_

    • Dallas says:

      I’m sure it is the latter. Batter power for planes, trains, ships and trucking is not at all practical. The idea of multiple blades makes sense for failure redundancy but it just compounds the impracticality of it.

      I’m not sure how angels provide their lift but it might involve nano propulsion. This needs research.

  5. Animby says:

    A helmet?
    With all those naked blades spinning wildly all around him, I’d have insisted on body armor!

  6. Jim G says:

    a future winner-to-be of the Darwin Award

  7. fishguy says:

    Why didn’t they finish wiring it before they went outside? Oh, and the music hurt my ears.

  8. msbpodcast says:

    I wouldn’t go near the bare-ass rotating propellers on that thing on a dare, with a blow job from Anna Kournikova as the prize.

    Put some vertical cowlings around all of them and then maybe, if they put on a high speed deployment parachute over top of the thing.

  9. #12- bobbo, OCCUPY DVORAK: what if "we-all" number our own posts and post seriatim ourselves? says:

    Its been nailed already: too many parts and I would add the thrust vectors too far away from the center of gravity.

    Here is a much better design: one I would buy and enjoy if I still had the interest. Hell, if I had the throwaway money, I would be interested.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=f09_yvcASLM

  10. Buzz Mega says:

    If only there were a way to put the rotors above one’s head. Oh, well.

  11. Dean says:

    Small props have less mass so it one breaks there is less danger of injury. Also with so many redundant systems if you do lose one or two you should still have some control. Over all, a great design. I like the exercise ball for the main landing gear.

  12. AdmFubar says:

    well so much for german engineering….

    unless they want to sell this to ronco…

  13. Buzz Mega says:

    How many miles per charge? How many KwH per charge? How much in electricity to fly trans-Atlantic?

    Okay, then, how much to fly across the country?

  14. deowll says:

    It can fly. It won’t fly far on batteries.

  15. jescott418 says:

    No I don’t think my garage can fit such a craft. One question, where does the groceries go and where at Walmart can I land such a craft?

    • Skeptic > post # 27,330 says:

      I’m glad you asked. It will fold up while you are in the driveway. Just make sure it’s turned off first. Then you just sort of bounce it into your garage. you hang your grocery bags on hooks under each propeller. Each prop carrying an extra load will have to rev faster to compensate.

  16. Sam says:

    Most of you are a bunch of idiots. TRYING something like this leads to further development, which leaves morons with their thumbs stuck you know where wondering why they didn’t think of that. 100% what is wrong with research and development in this country. Oooh I might get hurt by blades flying off. Oooh if the wind blows I might fall down. Go develop something better than a time wasting computer game that leads to nothing. Thanks for reading my rant.

    • Skeptic > post # 27,329 says:

      Sam, you are right. This might lead to a much simpler flying machine with a single propeller sitting atop of a cabin, perhaps for carrying 2 to 4 people. I suspect that it would also need some sort of stabilizer… perhaps a small rotor to apply force in the opposite direction to the main propeller rotation. These guys are really on to something!

    • What? says:

      There is no point to it.

      Excellent helicopters have already been designed.

      This thing is a turd.

      It would be illegal to build and fly this in the USA if it weighed more than 255 lbs (unless the pilot is licensed and the craft has been inspected and registered with the FAA).

      http://youtu.be/mwjyNh5nG6Q

  17. Skeptic says:

    Looking at the height of the (possibly self-destructing) prop’s vs the seating, I’d say “better wear a jock strap”…

  18. wirelessg says:

    the helotine, rhymes with guillotine

  19. GregAllen says:

    Jet packs and personal helicopters were always a bad idea.

    Most drivers are barely in control of their vehicles when navigating in 2D. Can you imagine the chaos if you gave them another dimension?

    • Glenn E. says:

      I’d agree with personal jet packs being a bad idea. But it never amounted to anything, anyway. So few, if anyone, ever died flying one. Far worse was the idea of the airship. And not just because of using combustible hydrogen, as the Hindenburg once did. But because them requiring relatively calm and dry weather, in which to safely operate. The US Navy lost a number of helium filled airships, in bad weather, before giving up on them entirely. So every time some tries restarting the notion of newer airship design. I have to say, “oh no, not again”. Have they also redesigned earth’s weather to cooperate? Don’t think so. So airships should never be used by more than a handful of brave soles, being paid to advertise tires or beer.

  20. JimD says:

    We don’t NEED DUI’S FALLING OUT OF THE SKY !!! Small, flimsy aircraft will NEVER BE INSURABLE and legally operable !!! Thank God !!!

  21. Glenn E. says:

    But it’s not the first small aircraft to fly using batteries. I saw a small fixed wing plane, demonstrated on Youtube, about two years ago. That flew for about an hour, on a single charge. And even if it’s batteries were run dry. It could glide down safely. Not like this multiple rotary thing that would plummet down, pretty fast.

  22. Dallas says:

    Fail


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