Real-life Hover Vehicle Flies 15 Feet High

[Squilookle]

Well, Escapist, you're getting much better at reporting this sort of thing. You've gone from describing Chinese efforts as:

"like a callback to Soviet-era engineering when devices were constructed to function at all costs, even if that meant decapitating a few dozen hapless volunteers."[footnote]http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.314367-Chinese-Farmer-Builds-Whirling-Death-Machine#12752452[/footnote]



Through an imaginative dissection of a German concept including:

"the greatest hurdle facing the designers is how to keep the machine's operators from falling into a painful death via spinning metal blades and/or sudden, sharp impact with the ground"[footnote]http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.321265-First-Manned-Multicopter-Flight-Impressive-Terrifying[/footnote]



To this 'just the facts' even handed, genuinely well written report of a version created in the United States.

I sure hope that it is journalistic integrity, rather than the particular spot of earth each machine took off from, that has defined this progression. I think I'll assume the former: Well done, Sarah LeBoeuf!

 

[Somethingfake]

ERTW. SOMEONE PUT GUNS AND MISSILES ON IT! I demand hoverbike races and death-matches to become an Olympic sport!

They made a decent hovercarcand aren't going to put it o the market? Any chance someone could helpfully sneak a look at their designs and make a version different enough that it can be sold without violating copyright?

not planning on selling a manned version?

they've taken something that flies low altitude and removed all the expensive crap... WHY NOT SELL IT TO PEOPLE?!

it's like they hate money or something...

Because everything that has been invented *MUST* be produced for the market, R&D and production cost be damned.

Let's all ignore the differences between prototypes and final versions, the initial costs of mass production and the absolute uncertainty of the profits.

Because health and safety will shit on it. Cars are dangerous enough anyway. I have a simple rule when out walking : All drivers are morons, no exceptions. It's saved my arse a few times with the way some dicks drive, so to give someone something that goes a good speed up to 15 feet is just asking for trouble.

Can health and safety actually do anything if it's just meant for private property? Selling it doesn't imply making it "street legal".

If it's a deathtrap H&S can still step in.

 

[ElPatron]

If it's a deathtrap H&S can still step in.

That sounds awfully like a "nanny state" mentality. I don't see how can this be more of a death trap than a regular ATV or motorbike.

Also: it being street legal would significantly adjust their sales projections. When it being street legal means it will certainly sell more units, then the lack of legality is, in fact, detrimental.

You could localize a lot of Japanese games that weren't released in Europe and America, doesn't mean everyone would buy it.

One of the few things I know about business is that enlarging the target audience doesn't increase sales. I figure that they would lose more money.

It may sound like I'm trolling

"you keep using that word..." etc.

 

[teisjm]

Shut up and take my money!
oh... you're not selling it for money?
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY SOUL THEN!

How wonderfull it would be to never get stuck in trafic again, with tests at 15 feet, you could just amp up the fans when stuck and hover over the sad earthbound car drivers.
Not to wory about the cars you hover over, which might get something like a sandblown top, cause honestly, how are they gonna catch up to you when you're speeding away and they're stuck in trafic. And who would dare step out to argue with the dude who just flew over you in his hover vehicle?

If they add wheels as well, with enough suspension, they could make it a hybrid ground/hover vehicle, save the energy it takes to hover the thing on roads (assuming it takes more energy to hover than drive) and have a car that could just take off.
Can't help but wonder if the hover thing works over water as well, like current water hover vehicles do.
Make it all waterproof, add a floaty ring-thing on the outside (which will also prevent scratches and bumps if hitting stuff at slight speed, like on bumper-cars.
If it wasn't for those damned laws of physics, and the large ammounts of time and knowledge it required, i would be an awesome engineer

I wonder if i they could make it in a batman-ish design...
And now if you'll excuse me, i need to go change my underwear...

...snip...
"i've found a solution for world hunger! let's use it to start our own series of eating competitions."

That could actually work oretty well...

Take a bunch of starving people
Split them into 2 groups
Group A is the competitors in the eating contest
Groups B is the meal

After the competition is over, and the medals have been handed out to the best eaters, the group of starving people is no longer starving, AND you have a nice show for TV, which solves the main issue of solving world hunger, that it's not proffitable.
Bonus nobel prize for solving the over population issue, if applied in a big enough scale.
Bonus awards from PETA as well, since no animals were hurt durring the event.