What would you get if you took a two-wheel-drive motorcycle, rotated the wheels so they were horizontal, and replaced those wheels with fan blades? Why, you'd get a flying motorcycle, of course.
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At least that's the hope. Australian mechanical engineer Chris Malloy has been working on his Hoverbike for two and a half years with the hopes of eventually selling them. Malloy estimates the Hoverbike will have a 10,000-foot ceiling, a top speed of 150 knots (around 170 mph) and a flying time of 45 minutes. The key safety feature is a parachute on your back and another two explosive parachutes attached to the frame, if you don't feel like ditching.
Sure it's a little suspicious that the tethered flying tests have only been documented with still photographs and no video, despite one (unsatisfying) video showing an engine airflow test, but like all boys and men I desperately want to believe the Hoverbike is real. Malloy is currently soliciting donations on his website to fund the project. (Glen, next time you see Malloy, tell him about Kickstarter for chrissakes. He puts this thing up there and his funding will shoot up faster than the bike.)
I'm sure you've got lots of questions about how the bike actually flies, what the controls are like, and what the other safety features are. Malloy's prepared with an FAQ you can check out here.
How do you control the Hoverbike?
- To lift off into a hover, one needs to increase the thrust via a throttle grip with the right hand – exactly the same as the throttle on a motorbike
- To fly forward a combination involving an increase in thrust and the deflection of air from the front control vanes (twisting the left handle grip) will tilt the total thrust vector forward resulting in an acceleration forwards (twist back to go backwards)
- To to make the bike roll (turn) left and right, all one needs to do is push the handle bars down on the side you wish to turn (handle bars work just like a bicycle, but with an extra axis so that they rotate up and down a little) – you could lean in the appropriate direction just like a motorbike, but this is proving to be not as sensitive as one would expect or like.
- Yaw (nose left or right) is via control vanes front and rear and actuated by turning the handle bars – just like a bike.
