DailyDirt: Flying Contraptions
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Flying machines have been with us now for a little over 100 years. We still don't have flying cars clogging up the skies, but that's probably not such a bad thing. However, we still have a bunch of folks trying to improve upon flying in various ways. All kinds of quadcopters appear to be the trendy way to get things in the air nowadays, but we still have quite a ways to go before we're flying as gracefully as birds.- Omni Hoverboards has set a world record for a functioning hoverboard: the longest distance for a person to travel on one. (#SYTL) This hoverboard looks like it's just two quadcopters stuck together so a person can stand on top of them, and it's pretty loud. On the plus side, it works on water, and it doesn't require liquid nitrogen or superconducting magnets. But it only goes about 900 feet or so, and drops somewhat abruptly. [url]
- The Black Knight Transformer is a truck-helicopter hybrid vehicle that doesn't look like an Autobot or a Decepticon at all. This vehicle can be remotely piloted, and it only seems to fly a few feet off the ground. Someday, it might be able to carry a bunch of troops and/or gear to difficult-to-reach locations, but for now, it doesn't look like an incredibly reliable means of transportation. [url]
- The Solar Impulse 2 is the first solar-powered plane that can fly continuously, day or night... for about 120 hours. This plane is going to try to circumnavigate the globe, but its batteries overheated on a flight from Japan to Hawaii. It also only fits one pilot, but we'll probably see a drone version of this (without a pilot on board at all) serving wireless internet someday soon. [url]
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Filed Under: airplanes, black knight transformer, drones, flying machines, helicopter, hoverboard, quadcopter, solar impulse 2, transportation
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