THE JET PAC NOW HAS COMPETITION. MAN CARRYING DRONE

[Tinker]

http://www.flixxy.com/21st-century-avia ... -drone.htm

[flyingvinnie]

While kinda cool, not anywhere near being a drone.....

[I_Heart_Seaplanes]

Can I log this as Multi-PIC?

[GyvAir]

Multi-PIC rotary wing only.

Definitely not a drone. I assumed he'd be just along for the ride, while his 11 year old kid sporting a set of VR goggles flew it using his iPhone from his bedroom.

I like the umbrella feature. Is that for rainy days, is it just that it has a tendency to shed blades in the direction of the pilot's jugular?

[Mach1]

I sense an impending Darwin Award winner.

[armchair]

Yes it does invite sarcasm and jokes but really, he does have authentic looking skids!! This is the inevitable follow-up to better and more capable drones in terms of lift and control and reliability etc. That is a certainty that a decent self-transport by air will come out of the drone world, such as that prototype and others. We shall celebrate a number of Darwin Awards in the process, but it is just a matter of time before random Joes and Janets start commuting to work at 20 feet over the bumper to bumper traffic.... I would if I was confident in the reliability of the contraption.

[Meatservo]

I actually think it's pretty cool. It's pretty obvious that the craft has little of the self-flying software that commercially available multi-rotor model aircraft have, although it must have an impressive amount of channel mixing built in, in order to make all those motors respond to commands from a little control stick, or sticks.

What I see as this guy's biggest problem at this point is that he is teaching himself how to fly the machine. I've tinkered with R/C aircraft, and watching this machine flying around, reminds me exactly of what it looks like when someone tries to teach themselves how to fly an R/C helicopter. It's pretty difficult, and while understanding how helicopters work definitely helps, it is in no way a guarantee of success. My first attempts were identical to this guy's, just sort of wafting about in a semi-controlled unstable hover, and quite prudently putting it down again when control becomes questionable. I would like to see how he gets on once he's figured out how to fly. I think it would be even better if he installed some more conventional manual controls: the stick-pedal-throttle configuration is pretty tried-and-true and relatively intuitive. Maybe the throttle being configured as a sort of faux collective lever would prove to be even more intuitive.

I think this thing has a lot going for it. I'm not sure if it's structurally sound, mind you, but look at the design, dozens of little brushless (very reliable) motors, each with its own battery, gives it incredible immunity to failure. It could have redundant control programming to take into account the failure of one or several motors, or better yet, employ some of the automatic flight technology used in the "drone" toys that are becoming prolific.

The only real problem I see with this kind of aircraft is the old argument about whether it's desirable for the average bozo, or hordes of bozos, to have access to flying machines. Until now the relative expense and difficulty of flying has kept the number of flying bozos to at least a level that has prevented them from destroying civilization.

[5x5]

Dang, I thought this was for sure a set up for the old joke.........