Air Oxyride 100-AA glider takes wing

Panasonic's Oxyride-powered glider took to the air for the first time this weekend, with Panny's blogger declaring only that "it flew temporarily." While this publicity stunt/college engineering project isn't going to revolutionize transportation or aviation (despite Panasonic's tagline that the project is the work of "21st Century Wright Brothers"), we still have to give props to Panny -- and especially the team at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The idea of building a manned glider powered by 100 AAs may have sounded impossible, but they managed to pull it off.

[logic368 Posted May 1st 2006 1:53PM]

100 AA's is about 5 lbs. - almost a pound less than the Apple MacBook Pro.

[(Unverified) Posted May 1st 2006 1:53PM]

The Tokyo Institute of Technology...

The T.I.... T? Please god, someone, anyone - tell me that's not the real name.

I keep thinking of the Andy Kim song Rainbow Ride - I ain't takin' no Oxyride, I ain't take no Oxyride, girl.

[(Unverified) Posted May 1st 2006 2:01PM]

There was a jumper off a building near me recently. He flew temporarily too. Come to think of it, I flew temporarily as I got out of bed this morning. But then my feet hit the floor.

[(Unverified) Posted May 1st 2006 2:34PM]

Isn�t �powered glider� an oxymoron?

[(Unverified) Posted May 1st 2006 2:55PM]

"Isn�t �powered glider� an oxymoron?"

Well no glider can take off on its own. It's got to get airborne somehow. After that, it glides (And apparently in this case that's "glide" as in "fall to Earth almost immediately.")

[logic368 Posted May 1st 2006 3:03PM]

Hey Zoinks, who doesn't wanna go to TIT? I do!

[(Unverified) Posted May 1st 2006 3:31PM]

This thing looks pretty cool. It will be interesting to see where the information gathered through their experience with this glider guides future developments.

Please stop calling Panasonic Panny. Or Samsung Sammy. Unless they are "making copies"

[peteremcc Posted May 1st 2006 4:46PM]

TIT is of course not it's name in Japanese and I doubt TIT means the same there either.

And yes a powered glider is an oxymoron, most gliders are 'pulled' (yes using a rope) up by another plane and then glide down.

[(Unverified) Posted May 1st 2006 5:10PM]

Panasonic refers to them as the "21st Century Wright Bros" because that is essentially what they're doing - ie: flying a powered-glider (The Wrights called theirs the "Wright Flyer").

The Wright brothers' experiments involved kites and gliders, they were not refered to as airplanes at the time. The first successful powered flight was logged by the Wrights and their Wright Flyer in Kittyhawk, NC. The "flight" lasted 12 seconds, covered a distance of 120 feet, and barely made it more than a few feet off the ground.

I'd imagine, by the pictures here, that the Panasonic glider didn't fair much better.

[(Unverified) Posted May 1st 2006 5:28PM]

Technically, anything that flies unpowered is a glider. There are towed gliders, and there are self-launching gliders which usually have a small motor that either retracts or feathers the prop for better aerodynamics.

[(Unverified) Posted May 1st 2006 7:09PM]

i could make a glider that flies more than 'temporarily' when powered by 100 aa batteries...

[(Unverified) Posted May 1st 2006 7:33PM]

#11 yes, but this one carried a person look closely.

[lettcco Posted May 2nd 2006 5:54AM]

lol...I guess that's why we don't have a
Texas Institue of Technology
or
Tennessee Institue of Technology