Australian Unveils Prototype Hoverbike

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I like the idea of a hover bike, I don't like the idea of my junk being that close to a spinning fan again.

I wonder how loud it is.

Oh, we had to invent this because most of the terrors that stalk us here are ground based, like spiders and snakes. With a hover bike we will be safe, until the spiders and snakes have angry sex with birds...

 

[DaHero]

Scientists still need to create hologram advertisements and automatic lacing shoes before I'm impressed (-_-)

They're called slip-ons, I have a pair right now and they're wonderful, AND work for both casual and formal occasions.

 

[AetherWolf]

and based on the pixels and my having seen a number of photoshops in the past

i c wut u did thar

Spoiler

OT: I hate to be one of those fags on Youtube that yells points "this video is fake and gay" at everything... But I'm a bit skeptic.

Still pretty cool though. I'll keep myself updated on this.

 

[FuktLogik]

Those better be some damned impressive fans if they're gonna make him hover.

Those better be damn impressive fans if he can max out at 10,000 feet!

 

[CrustyOatmeal]

im doubting the stats on the bike (they may be very liberal interpretations without weight or no air drag figured in) but i dont doubt that it exists. i just cant see this machine being very stable or aerodynamic enough for actual flight. the man has it tethered down for a reason

 

[AntiAntagonist]

Wouldn't be surprised if you could get enough thrust with those fans.

Currently existing jet packs seem to have a similar amount of surface area for their props.

However I'd be highly skeptical that this thing can keep balanced with a rider. The tethers in the pic could be all that is keeping it stabilized. Right now the design appears extremely top-heavy with the rider.

In addition to the above I doubt that this thing would be able to stay aloft for long. With that design I can't see many places for a big honking fuel tank, which is what you need to stay aloft for a good period of time.

 

[Strazdas]

looks like were slowly erasing "fiction" out of "science fiction"

Those better be some damned impressive fans if they're gonna make him hover.

Those better be damn impressive fans if he can max out at 10,000 feet!

Well if the fans can lift it it has enough thrust to lift it and is only then limited to the density of air and its movement (like its much easier to lift it in cold air due to it being more dense thus giving more surface to "push" at). and the air density dissapearing as you go up the atmosphere isnt that fast, afterall, we can breathe in the mountains. im certain that 10 thousand feet is a very liberal untested estimation, but if they can lift it as high as that the lift comes from air resistance and not ground resistance (like seen in the picture) then going up isnt hard to do.

 

[Gimlii]

I'm a business guy, so I noticed that he was looking for funding. What is interesting is that he hasn't incorporated to allow for him to sell stock. He wants 1.1 million AUD, but he's only asking for donations...

That is extremely suspicious to me. Incorporating does cost some money and time, but isn't really all that hard. It provides excellent personal liability security (which there is a lot of liability involved with a project like this) and gives him an easy way to gain a large amount of capital to complete the project. So, either A) he doesn't want anyone owning any portion of the future profit (which is admirable) or B) He doesn't want to sell stock because that would give those shareholders the right to see the product actually tested and this is b.s..

 

[dex-dex]

First Japan with their hovering sphere of awesome, now Australia?! We can NOT let America be beaten in the hover technology race! Someone build a hover tank! FAST!

MY GOD A HOVER TANK???? AMAZING!

 

[AvoJez]

I have serious doubts. Considering that a Westland Lynx, the fastest helicopter in the world and a dedicated military helicopter from a dedicated aircraft manufacturer, tops out at 180kts and 12,000' (and that's cruise alt, max hover alt is 10,500'), I can't believe that this home-built, under-engineered one off could perform at (funnily enough, EXACTLY on both counts) eighty-three and a third percent of the Lynx.

I also have major concerns for longitudinal stability considering that the centre of gravity appears to be above the fans, rather than below as in a helicopter, making rollover a near certainty. Lateral stability, let alone any real control, would also be non existent since it doesn't have an anti-torque rotor (normal helicopter) nor the ability to manipulate the angle of attack to make it similar to something like a CH-53 Chinook. I'll bet that if he takes it off the tethers, it will either spin like a top and spear into the ground, or roll over like a labrador and spear into the ground.


Further, look up retreating blade stall and/or dissymmetry of lift for a detailed explaination of why this thing, with fixed pitch blades, will not do 150kts. The fans wont tilt like on a V-22 Osprey, so no comparison there, nor do they have a variable angle of attack like on a conventional helicopter (to tilt the rotor disc forward by creating more lift at the rear), so no comparison there either. The only theoretical method for fast forward flight would be to tilt the entire frame into the approaching airflow, which is still unlike a CH-53 Chinook. And I mean TILT, as in about 45 degrees. It looks like he's trying to design a completely new method of forward flight, not just a new vehicle.

Good luck. It's either a hoax or he has delusions of grandeur, but bless his cotton socks for trying.

 

[Flamezdudes]

If this is real I will program mine to have the sound of the Star Wars Hoverbikes if it doesn't already, it must have it!

 

[tahrey]

I know I've posted this pic before, but if this takes us a bit closer to

then I'm all for it.

(not-quite-posted-yet edit: Fuck me in the ass, those crazy japanese mothers made a working one! Well... it's a cable-towed glider, and it looks a bit too bulky for one person to carry around a la the source material, but given that it's based off something that was entirely made up and mostly sized/shaped for artistic effect and has still flown better than the Wrights' first plane, I'm impressed 85 different ways to sunday and back. Now stick some kind of RC plane turbine in the centre aperture and let the fun times roll!)

Not sure VTOL fans are the way to go, though. It'd be alright for ground effect, but the sheer amount of power you'd need to achieve and maintain flight at 10,000ft would mean any practically-sized fuel tank (say, that of a large motorcycle) would be drained so fast you might not be able to go up that high, fly for a mile in a straight line at top speed, and safely come back down to earth. Batteries and hydrogen cells would have no chance. Some kind of fusion powerplant may be the only practical solution.

Capcha: "men ingame"

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I'd say it's plausible, but probably a very finicky way to transport yourself. If it actually works I'd totally want one although considering where I live I'd have some jealous asshole just run it over with his truck while I was in the store picking up groceries.

GAH SAME HERE.

there are so so so so many ignorant truck owners from where i'm from...they have their "BIG OLE MERICNNNNN TRUUUHHHHCKKK! HURRRR HURRRRRRRR!!!" and fucking do whatever the hell they want on the road.

hell last week i had to slam on my brakes goin 45 down this one street, in which it's a nice open flat street with no trees or anything by it, so you can't bring that into the equation/blame, i was clearly within a good 40 feet or so in the right lane(2 lanes going west, big median between the other lanes so swerving not an option), and not for a good half mile or so was anyone coming so he clearly could have waited an extra 2 seconds, and this guy takes a wide ass right turn taking up the inside lane and my lane with his F-350 (fuckhead weighing 350 lbs of dipshit more like it), in which i slam on the brakes and swerve into the inside lane to barely dodge the side of his truck taking off the top of my honda, and in that process he waves his arm out the window flicking me off while he roars his engine to barely make it to 40 while i blow by him giving him the same courtesy right back.

[gross over generalization, i just hate how much i fucking run into it where i'm from]

 

[The Lugz]

i found a great comparison to this, with explanations experiments and comments from flight experts ( saying things like 'the military scrapped this after pouring millions at it' )

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=Y62E7VJ1

yep, that's right myth-busters

and before you comment on the experiment, that's not the part i'm particularly interested in showing people it's the clips of the military experiments and how machines built by top scientists with literally millions of dollars invested in them simply cant remain as stable as a light helicopter, cant be remotely fuel efficient, would pretty much deafen you.. and have a laundry list of other flaws
'blowing' someone off the ground isn't the hard part, and that's difficult enough the damn near impossible bit is stabilizing the flight, which can be done with difficulty.. using gyroscopes, gps equipment, and a lot of computing power, but the damning point that's pretty-much insurmountable is having enough fuel to go anywhere worth flying
these things are so incredibly fuel inefficient that it boggles the mind
'very good' combustion engines struggle to better 30% efficiency
you are spending 90+ of the power you generate from that holding yourself stationary in the air at ground level

that makes any lateral movement between 3-5% fuel efficient

it's so impractical it's a joke with current technology
give it 30 years, maby
right now? really unlikely.

this guy building his hover-bike on the same technology is either a scam artist looking for pre-orders, or just plain deluded
even if he can stabilize the bike, he cant change the laws of physics and allow efficient flight out of that vehicle
the performance claims are simply off the wall

which is a shame, because i'd love a hover-bike, hover platform, or fan-backpack
but it just isn't happening, not right now and certainly not for the price they claim
be repaired to dish out 1m+ for a device capable of the claims on that webpage
when it's possible, and it is 'when' because mad people are obsessed with it so it'll happen eventually
do yourself a favour and don't pre-order one, just a heads-up

 

[Insomniac55]

I also have major concerns for longitudinal stability considering that the centre of gravity appears to be above the fans, rather than below as in a helicopter, making rollover a near certainty...

...nor do they have a variable angle of attack like on a conventional helicopter (to tilt the rotor disc forward by creating more lift at the rear), so no comparison there either. The only theoretical method for fast forward flight would be to tilt the entire frame into the approaching airflow...

I'm likewise skeptical, but not for those reasons. It's entirely possible for an aircraft such as this to be flyable. Control in the pitch direction can be easily achieved by varying the speed of each prop. This principal is used in small rc vehicles called quadcopters: Four fixed pitch, independantly variable-speed rotors provide all lift and control. However, I'm not sure if this would work at the sort of scale as this bike (rapidly adjusting the speed of lightweight plastic propellers is one thing... Adjusting the speed of large props like those on the 'hoverbike' rapidly enough to become stable is another). I'll get to the unwanted torque effects of varying the prop's speeds later.

Control in the roll axis could be achieved by small vanes placed under each prop, to direct some airflow sidewards. Similar control methods have been used in other 'jetpack' devices which rely on ducted fans.

To prevent yaw due to the prop's torque, counter-rotating props would have to be used (as in, the front fan spins clockwise and the rear fan spins counterclockwise) Yaw control could be achieved by varying the speed of each prop, but of course this would also result in unwanted pitching. So the most likely method would be to simply use the same vanes which I suggested for roll control, but acting in opposition to eachother, resulting in yaw. This method of yaw control would also be tied to the pitch control: As varying the relative speeds of the props in order to create pitching movements, would also result in yaw, the vanes would have to counteract this exactly to create independant yaw and pitch control.

Now, such a system is by nature very unstable, just as modern RC quad-copters are naturally unstable. However, the addition of gyroscopic sensors and some (relatively) simple programming can create a very stable craft.


So, this design is possible, but I can't see it being ideal... it just looks too unstable to me. A quad-copter design (with a bit more leverage on roll control) seems much more promising.


Also, forgive me if I misunderstand you, but helicopters don't fly fowards by simply tilting the rotor disk. The swashplate causes the blades to rapidly vary their pitch as they complete each revolution, resulting in more lift at a certain point in the rotor disk. This pitches the whole heli forwards, which results in forward flight.

 

[Firehound]

Once they get it to work, I'll want.

 

[Naturality]

If building a hoverbike was as simple as sticking a few fans to a seat, it would have been done decades ago during the '60s when people were messing around with hovercrafts and the like.

 

[squidbuddy99]

Why the hell did it take so long for us to make this?! Are scientists too busy making 3D watches to make the stuff we thought we'd have by now 40 years ago? Forget about cancer research, where the hell is my goddamn holodeck??