A Chinese company has spend 12 years and 2.6 miljoen dollars to create a flying saucer of 1.2 m in diameter, which can fly up to 1KM in the sky. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MwxVAZuFOs
A tremendous amount of lift from just fans (total of eight?); but I would doubt the claim of up to one click altitude. The thing just about 20 feet off the ground already looks unsteady. At altitude, a brisk cross wind would probably easily flip it over. Notice the safety cable attached to the crane too. This is not yet ready for prime time. Moreover, what does it use for fuel? There's a trade in terms of fuel weight versus mission cargo and how the two affects flight specs (ie more fuel equals longer flight but little cargo, while little fuel means more cargo, but less air time). All in all, not a bad attempt, but I'm not sure if it will ever see commercial viability to recoup investments in this project (2.6 Million and 12 years? Damn...) Much smaller and lighter versions that carry cameras and other spy devices have been commercially available in most countries for years. However, none are directly pilot controlled (all remote). It would be quite the accomplishment for someone to come up with an actual air worthy craft that can carry a pilot too (aside from the H2O2 short flight jet packs). Then there's the jet plane man from Switzerland, who jumps out of a plane, opens his jet equip wings strapped to his back, and actually flies an aerodynamically controlled flight for about 10 minutes before the engine runs out of fuel. He then opens his parachute and lands. I'm sure that there's military applications already on the drawing board for such devices (off shore HALO insertions, etc). None yet can offer the type of air flight that we associate with getting into, say a car, and taking for a spin around the block. It would be worth a lot if people can come up with something like that. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/15/swiss_birdman_backpack_jet_stunt/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/12/stealth_jetplane_pack_special_forces/ Ralph
lol I gotta say Owned, this woulda been BIG news in the 1960s but now haha , was that rope attached to thetop?
Well if push comes to shove they can send it over to Roswell and the diehards camped out there will cream their jeans... LOL... Ralph
Thats nothing new there was already a saucer built I think by the US government more than 10 years ago that did the same thing that that did in the video. So in other word this company has just spent all that money on a project was already at this stage more than 10 years ago
Cool and interesting, kw jus another 12yrs to make it go higher, n another 24yrs to put it to any sorta good use!
