Face it, levitation rocks. I am fairly sure most of us would jump at the opportunity to look like Luke Skywalker on a landspeeder. Traveling at insane speeds, weaving in and out of a forest, desert or in rush hour traffic. Commute time would sure speed up with a hover vehicle.
In the past we have featured plenty of hover devices, most very limited in capability (and in our ability to pay for them!). Sure this hovercraft just entailed leaning, but not all motions were controlled by the pilots motions. Aeroflex has designed a hover vehicle that acutally uses the pilot’s natural balance to control actions. By shifting weight left, right, up or down, and pulling on the unit the need for flight control software disappears.
Take a look at the video above, from the Future Vertical Lift Conference of the American Helicopter Society in January this year. Included are examples of motions enabling rollover/roll authority, takeoff torque, turning, pitch for landing or simply cruising straight ahead. (Future Vertical Lift Conference makes me say “cool!”).
I’m sure human levitation will happen someday – but who knows if it will be in our lives. So in the interim let’s sit back and enjoy the progress being made and dream of our own landspeeder.
In the past we have featured plenty of hover devices, most very limited in capability (and in our ability to pay for them!). Sure this hovercraft just entailed leaning, but not all motions were controlled by the pilots motions. Aeroflex has designed a hover vehicle that acutally uses the pilot’s natural balance to control actions. By shifting weight left, right, up or down, and pulling on the unit the need for flight control software disappears.
Take a look at the video above, from the Future Vertical Lift Conference of the American Helicopter Society in January this year. Included are examples of motions enabling rollover/roll authority, takeoff torque, turning, pitch for landing or simply cruising straight ahead. (Future Vertical Lift Conference makes me say “cool!”).
I’m sure human levitation will happen someday – but who knows if it will be in our lives. So in the interim let’s sit back and enjoy the progress being made and dream of our own landspeeder.
