Watch out, battery-powered
MAVs -- your viability could be seriously in danger. Based on a patent application from University of Florida aerospace engineer Subrata Roy, he's reckoning that a micro air vehicle could be propelled by plasma. Scientists have known that passing a current or magnetic field through a conducting fluid generates a force, but exploiting it for use in moving an aircraft has proven futile thus far. The phenomenon, simply known as magnetohydrodynamics, has typically been tested on larger crafts, but Mr. Roy's invention would boast a wingspan of less than 15-centimeters and resemble a flying saucer more so than a 747. Of course, this fantastic idea has yet to become much more than just that, but for armed forces and entities obsessed with
surveillance, this could undoubtedly be big.
posted May 9th 2008 12:20AM
the hoverboard is finally coming!
YAY!
Forget the hoverboard. I want Luke's Landspeeder!
I'll hover convert your old road car into into a skyway flyer! For only $39,999.95!
omgosh! Dr. Tobias Funke...the world's first analyst/therapist, aptly titled, an analrapist! welcome to the technology blog, good sir!
Danke schön!
The umlaut works here. It doesn't allow it in display names though.
yeah, nice try... how long is that extension cord again?
Hear that??..the sound of bags of money being carried by Exxon..
...That's not money...Those are bullets!
It's what they do: buy up all the patents for viable alternative energy and sit them on a shelf until we've used up our fossil fuels. Once they've milked our planet for all it's worth, then they'll break out the ideas for new energy and cash in on them.
So I guess the suits at Ford and GM are waiting until their own cars get repossessed before they break out the uber-secret technology.
If they had it, they'd use it. And if it was patented, the process to make it would be made public; I guarantee Chinese would be copying it.
How much can thing this hold at 15cm? A doggie!
Could I bake a bun cake in that too?
isn't it bundt cake?
I stand corrected.
I cant get the link to work.
Does it specifically say it won't be bigger than 15cm? Maybe they are starting small to minimize cost.
I did a search for Subrata Roy on the wipo.int website and and found this http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=2008016928
Just says the system CAN be used on 15cm aircraft.
I'll actually get to ride a speeder bike before I die !!
magnetohydrodynamics?
that's what they say runs the silent drive of the Red October in the Hunt For Red October
surprised no one else commented on that before me
great movie
So when flying saucers ARE flying around in the sky, what will happen to UFO sightings...will they end cause everything can be explained by our own flying stuff?
Of course not. It simply means that government cover-ups will be less imaginative.
Wait, isn't this the same technology that cut open the pigs and cadavers yesterday?
The plural of craft (as in vehicles) is craft. The plural of craft (as in hobbies) is crafts.