This is a pretty cool thing. I dont think it says that it flies but it looks awesome. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/The-...012QQitemZ220188946461QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
Hm..gives me an idea, make something that doesn't work but no one needs it, then sell it for a high price. I should sell a talking rock, but only thing is, it doesn't talk lol
Neat idea, if it worked (even if it didn't work very well) it might be worth what they are trying to sell it for.
I remember reading about this in the late 80s-mid 90s. there was some thing in the area of $6 million invested through the major contributers to the project most of which was given by Boeing. Yes, It was capable of sustained flight. However any more then a few inches or feet off the ground it became unstable because they couldn't manage the lifting force from each fan. Being close to the ground they relied on having the ground to equalize the lifting force. Higher up in the air there was no constant, a slight draft would change the dynamics of the air flow and the thing would roll over and crash. With the faster computers of today and the programing capabilities we have vs then one might be able to develop a way of reading its tilt then reacting by shifting weight in it or adjusting fan speed to compensate and stabilize it. I think he is selling it more for the reverse engineering potential of it then its capabilities. $6 million or so in R&D is there. To bad Boeing scraped the idea. Probably good they did, could you imagine if this had came to life in a feasible price point. Picture a soccer mom trying to take the kids to a game in some thing like this, it wouldn't be safe to be in your own house with a bad driver behind the stick. Plus the nightmare for the FAA when some one takes a wrong turn.
I'm somewhat surprised this project had so much money invested. Maybe it's a case of hindsight being 20/20, but looking at the design of this thing, I'm surprised an airplane engineer didn't look at it and laugh. It's like the designer didn't understand how airplanes achieve flight...
I'll put wings on my subie and sell it for $100k. Flying car. Anybody want it? anyways, if that thing could "really" fly, I'm pretty sure it'll cost way more then that.
It isn't really a fixed-wing aircraft if that's what you're referring to. It would be closer categorized as a rotor-wing since it isn't capable of sustaining flight without power. That's why I'm not, nor ever will be, a rotor pilot. I read about this thing and a few other prototypes in Popular Science in the 90s. The problem with them then, and even now, is that it's so difficult to keep stable without putting the thrust on a longer arm. Having it so close to the COG requires so much precision sensors and equipment that it was just beyond the tech we had available. Now we're getting a little better at it but it still requires several redundancies just in case one thread failed. Look at the Osprey we're finally using with the USMC and how many crashes it took before we let that thing in. Even now I don't really trust them.
