Your own personal VTOL aircraft
By Peter Rojas 
posted August 3rd 2004 12:00PM
posted August 3rd 2004 12:00PM
Devising yet another ingenious way for people to accidentally kill themselves (or as the British euphemistically call it "death by misadventure"-damn you, British, and your clever way with words!), Trek Aerospace is working on a line of personal Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, including the Dragonfly UMR-1, and our personal fave, the Springtail EFV-4A (pictured above). Let's just hope they can build one that goes more than 18 inches off the ground.
[Thanks, aeo]
It's the bastard son of the Solotrek XFV!
http://www.21stcentury.co.uk/technology/solotrek_xfv.asp
Pity DARPA cancelled it though. It worked amazingly well (i.e. it actually flew for a decent period of time for a good distance).
This is the preferred transportation for viking kittens as well. See: http://www.rathergood.com/gaybar/
The SoloTrek prototype was placed on eBay for $50,000 and the price soared over a million bucks: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=10385
It's off eBay now but he item id was 2154130368.
THIS is a personal VTOL aircraft.
http://www.technologie-entwicklung.de/Gasturbines/Monocopter/monocopter.html
Hey did you guys notice where they were testing this unit? It would seem to be pretty close to a gas station. Now I wonder what's in that white tank in the back ground.
yeah, i was thinking the same thing. test flight would go oops, crunch, spark, KABLAAAM. maybe we shoulda testsed away from the giant propane bottle.
Try looking at this site www.kestrelaerospace.com
This place offers almost silent VTOL systems ranging from single seat, three seat and cargo VTOL's plus UAV systems.
Try www.kestrelaerospace.com
O.K. the real Personal VTOLs
http://www.peroxidepropulsion.com/images/backpackheli.jpg
I had a picture of the “flying shoes” but can’t seem to find where I got it from.
http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/hiller_vz1.htm
It is referenced here but it was pretty cool looking.
I see this as all of the aero-quacks. You can make a rock fly. It is hard to make something reliable, safe, stable, reasonable performance, and acceptable range (in hover time or distance). The one I liked the best and (and it looks almost like SoloTrek ripped it off) was the Nord 500 http://www.raravia.com/nord500.htm
Common sense makes you look very hard at the size of the fans in all of the new guys (including Moller’s aero car). They are very small with high disc loading. Very inefficient tiny spikes of air pushing them upward. Compare this to the modern helicopter and the difference is clear. A huge column of air lofting it into the air. This gives it stability and efficiency. It personally ticks me off that DARPA gave these guys a dime! ;)