PersonalFlyingMachine
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Boeing gave $20,000 to these ten wacky personal flyer designs
Last year, Boeing announced the GoFly Prize, a new competition that will award one winner $1 million for a successful personal flying device prototype. It has to take off and land vertically, carry a human 20 miles without the need for refueling or recharging and be quiet, safe and compact, but otherwise, the design is completely up to those building it. Phase I of the competition just wrapped up and GoFly has announced the top 10 designs, each of which will be awarded $20,000.
Passenger drones will begin flying over Dubai this summer
The single-rider, human-sized quadcopter that whipped CES 2016 into a frenzy could be carrying passengers as early as this summer. As the head of Dubai's Roads and Transportation Agency announced at the World Government summit today, the Chinese EHang 184 passenger drone will begin "regular operations" around the futuristic city in July of 2017.
Martin Jetpack hits the 5,000 feet milestone, could come to market within 18 months (video)
OK, so the Martin Jetpack may not have gone into commercial production quite as soon as we'd anticipated, but there's still hope on the horizon. Over the weekend, Glenn Martin's flying machine successfully climbed some 5,000 feet above sea level, marking a new milestone in the 30-year, $12 million project. Remotely controlled by a tailing helicopter, the 250-pound craft used its two "superfans" to power itself skyward at about 800 feet per second minute, before safely parachuting back to Earth from a height of about 3,000 feet. As with its last test run, however, the Martin Jetpack was equipped not with a human being, but with a crash dummy. It may have been for the best, though, considering that the machine sustained some damage upon concluding the ten-minute flight. Nevertheless, Martin seems confident that yesterday's test "brings the future another step closer," and is hoping to deliver his brainchild to customers within the next 18 months -- plenty of time for us to hawk enough family heirlooms to afford that $86,000 price tag. Soar past the break for a video of the jetpack's big launch, or check out the source link for a more extensive interview with Martin and some background footage of his invention. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
NASA's Puffin is the latest personal flying machine that will never be produced (video)
Yes, this is going to be another flying car post in which we lament our current, terrestrial ways and our predominantly Earth-bound means of getting places. NASA has what it thinks is the solution, a personal flying machine called Puffin that is just large enough for a person to wedge themselves into before lurching off vertically, powered by a pair of electric motors. These motors are said to make the machine almost silent so an initial application could be covert battlefield insertions, meaning yet again those military brats get to have all the fun -- in theory. However, we're going to be downers and say we don't think they'll ever get to use this thing either, as we're not seeing any room for battery packs in that man-sized fuselage. But hey, there's some rendered conceptualization after the break if you're a dreamer.
GEN H-4 personal helicopter is for realz and for sale
Remember that personal helicopter we peeped last year which some of you didn't think was real? Well, we tracked down the manufacturer and yeah, you guessed it, dug out the price. Ok, it's not exactly the Bell Rocket Belt we were promised back in the 60's when Engadget was an upstart think-tank focusing on emerging technology for the US military. Still, the Japanese built GEN H-4 co-axial helicopter features a 125cc, horizontally opposed 2 cylinder engine capable of launching your ass some 1,000-meters (about half a mile) high at a max speed of 90km/hour, or a bit more than a Sammy Hagar. While it would appear to lessen the risk of setting fire to your nether regions, any margin of safety gained is likely offset by the threat from decapitation. For as the machine translation states: the H-4 is not a finished product, yet is "probably" possible to self-assemble. Oh, ok then, can we just PayPal the ¥3,780,000 (about $32,500) or will a personal check suffice? Yet judging by the photo, it's safe enough for children to operate so let's not go all pansy just yet.[Via Impress]
