The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
General Category => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: SCJJR65 on March 20, 2008, 07:30:02 AM
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It was bound to happen sooner or later..... And I want one. ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTNz6NftP34
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Hey !
Well, the auto-gyro idea isn't a new one, but having a useful range and speed for ground use like this is definitely more rare.
I love how the news-media automatically make some allusion to a Harley - it very clearly isn't powered by H-D, and I don't think
that H-D would want any part of it, even though it has a seriously raked front end !
I could just see the air above me now, during bike week in Laconia, NH (a couple towns over) - the roads already clog up here, and
next might be the skies !
:o
Mad Max Movies will make a comeback, too !
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I really liked that. Do you think one would have to have a flying licence? And I think the best part is you can glide down in safety in case our bike coughs out! :o
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Sue,
At least here in the US, I don't think a pilots license is required, as this aircraft is usually considered an ultra-light aircraft.
As such is not governed by an aviation authority.
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I remember, as a kid, trying to talk my dad into getting a gyrocopter from an ad that was in the back of Popular Science.
I told him how the ad said if there were a problem, the auto-gyro would have it glide to the ground.
"Glide like a rock" was his reply!
My dad could be funny. And he did have an interest in aviation, but I don't think he understood the auto-gyro concept. Not that I did either, of course!
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I don't know - a single engine private aviator's license *might* end up being required for this thing - the ultra lights, are, well, very light - no more than a couple hundred pounds, I believe, and the ceiling is less than 5000 feet (And the top speed is more like 35 mph) - so this vehicle might possibly be construed as an aircraft - I'll have to ask some friends who are experienced in aviation.
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That looks pretty neat, but I think, too, it's beginning to look primitive. What was accomplished in aviation over the past hundred years has been utterly remarkable: putting men on the moon, machines on Mars, and so on. I think the vision for this new century we're in will wrap around very personal flight, and Jeb Corliss has already begun the vision. He's the fellow in the flying squirrel suit who's recently been in the news. He can already soar in the suit, 3 feet forward per 1 foot descent. And he's now working to land in it. I'm betting he accomplishes that, and then the next will be to take off, doing away with the airplane that now lifts him into the heavens whereupon he jumps out. With what is available today in computer modeling, you no longer have to throw every design "over the wall." Much can be worked out digitally and safely. I can imagine some of the younger members of this board stepping out their doors some morning, take a couple of steps, and in to the air they go, where they find a thermal or wave, or maybe they soar along a ridge, and head to work or maybe they're just out for a pleasant view of the terrain below. Won't it be something!
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I had casually thought about gyrocopters about 25 years ago and I seem to remember that a license was not needed, at least at that time. I had wanted to build one but since I was pretty much broke at the time I think the cost of the blades kind of put a damper on the project...