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Jet-Powered Wheelchair
gpmcdermott writes "What does a man with too much time, a jet engine, and his mother-in-law's wheelchair, do?
The BBC is reporting on the results on the Beeb."
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I'd say he's trying to get rid of his Mother-in-Law.
Right is wrong when left is right.
First it's pondering the universe, then it's playing cards with Data, and now... now it's a rocket powered wheel chair! That man is a god.
I'm not claiming to be psychic but my gut feeling is that Giuseppe Cannella's last words will be "Hey, watch this!"
Trolling is a art,
Than strapping an jet engine to a wheelchair and taking off, eh? :)
-thewldisntenuff
My MythTV HowTo
For his next projects, Giuseppe will be working on Jet-Powered Segways, aptly to be named JetWays.
Did anyone else notice this guy NOT WEARING a helmet?
--------========+++Dont Feed The Lab Techs+++========--------
Tell me that first picture doesn't make you think of Duckman's grandma-in-law.
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... Christoper Reeves!
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Does Stephen Hawking know about this yet?
This is probably a step down frmo his exeskeleton suit though...
Blaze a trail to the New World
Great, now I can run that bigshot down the hall from me at the seniors home with the Racsal right out of the hallway.
I'm fact, I'll be the first one to the bingo table!
If you had a mother-in-law and a jet engine, what else would you do?
Heh, i'd like to see this thing in action...and hear it (safely via some video). Can't help but think it's louder than all of holy hell.
/.er - i gotta, that's pretty cool! Not so useful in say, Wal-mart, but cool none the less :)
Still, as a loyal
Freddy Got Fingered has prior art. Mmmm...Betty.
...desperately-trying-to-win-a-darwin-award department :)
It makes me think of a movie (some dumb teen movie, sorry !!) in which the fool main character has a girlfriend who's on a wheelchair, and does wheelchair-jet-propulsion as a hobby too... Anyone with the title ? :)
If the ADA crowd starts getting these en masse, then we should get some of those primo parking spaces back. It's only fair.
If you never make mistakes, it's probably because you're not doing anything.
At least it wasn't a JATO unit. See Snopes
[Insert pithy quote here]
Innovate while you can. Just stay away from anything that'll get you targeted as a terrorist.
Oh, wait...I just pictured the elderly rushing road blocks. Too late...
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
This is surely his fate. I just hope he hasn't reproduced yet.
Looking arround, I found jet engines made from a turbo assembly from a car. I wonder if it's possible to use something like that to power a tesla coil...
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
this
Check out THIS baby. 85mph with 300LBS of thrust?!?!?
Heh, couldn't help but google a bit:
This here don't look safe, but kinda fun anyway.
---------------
Well, at least he didn't put it on an SUV.
Somebody should get to work writing the snopes entry for this one. You know people will be looking it up...
just to get mine airborne so i can fly over traffic problems in the morning and then land on the otherside of the traffic jam and keep cruising on my merry way.
Is it 5:30 yet?
Thou shalt not complain about other people's grammar... lest thou should fail to capitalise the proper noun "Jesus".
The only thing accelerated faster than your Mother-in-Law is your inheritance.
This guy seriously watched 2 much ALi-G in tha house
Maybe I'm just behind on my new geek toys, but who the heck just has jet engines laying around their house?
--Forest C. Adcock--
Cannella is actually preparing for the X-Prize, this is just a land-based test launch.
Team Cannella's orbiter vehicle will have radiation shields made of old kettles.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
What does a man with too much time, a jet engine, and his mother-in-law's wheelchair, do?
He probably wathces a lot of porn.
--I'm not talking about dance lessons. I'm talking about putting a brick through the other guy's windshield.-
Scotty: Hey Captain!, Er, your not gonna believe this, but the scanners are showing .....
Kirk: Arm the photon torpedos, we'll show those Romulans that they can't fool us!
HGTTG: "I knew that there was something fundementally wrong with the Universe."
...he could've fed the mother-in-law copious amounts of chickpeas and beans the night before. Radishes too for added effect.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Ok, now put some balloons on there. Or is the power-to-weight ratio good enough for vertical takeoff?
I suppose Hawking in a jet wheel-chair would enhance his efficiency when he's "poppin' caps into those punk-ass niggaz from the Institute."
Because, as we all know, all his shootings be drive-bys.
*groaning in pain*
In addition to protecting the buildings, they also looked at methods of payload delivery. The coolest one was of course the big jet engine bolted to a Ford F-350. I don't know how the tests went but I just KNOW what the enigeers were doing the night before brass was invited...
Am I the only person who thought of the scene in the movie "Gremlins" when the gremlins caused the mean old lady's wheelchair to speed up so fast that she flew out of the window when trying to roll down the stairs?
Not He. She is the one who's going to fly in that stuff. So SHE gets the award.
HE should get a Nobel Prize.
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
TIMMY!
So, what is the land speed wheelchair record?
I mean, depending on where the engine is mounted relative to the center of mass of the chair/dude combo, it might not be all that dangerous. After all, if the direction of the jet is exactly lined up with the centor of mass, and the rider never moves even at all, why, it could even hit a small bump without becoming airbor...
On second thought, this is as stupid as it appears.
Does he just throw his mother-in-law overboard with some sort of tether?
Was that socially inappropriate?
Isn't that the same guy who was found hiding in the cargo bay of the Columbia space shuttle just minutes before it was launched for the last time?
That guy does not want to drive the jet propelled wheelchair, he wants to fly it into outer space. If you ask me he's already out there.
Helmets are expensive, and if you fall down and skid on one, it really screws the paint up, and that costs a lot to fix.
So this guy figgers (sic) that he'll just skid on his skull - bone and skin grow back, and it's not like it is a vital organ or anything....
It's like the squids you see riding the donorcycles wearing nothing but cut-offs and sunglasses - getting your cloths torn up (in non-cool-group approved ways) is expensive, but skin is cheap.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Oh well, I guess this is better than that do it yourself cruise missile guy! Though I'm not sure his mother-in-law would notice the difference!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
I'm glad he was using a helmet!
411 Y0UR 8453 4R3 8310NG 70 U5!! -NSA
Anyone notice he's not wearing a HELMET ??
Besides that, I have to say this is great.
I have a friend with Parkinson's and he's gonna get a huge kick out of this.
Thanks for digging this one up!
I predict that, based solely on the headline put up on /., and, of course, which day of the week it is, etc., that some articles are going to get hundreds of replies in the first hour.
Do the admins ever flag these headline articles with "120/hour, tapering off to light drizzle later" post-its, and then go back and check? I'd love to see a correlation between percieved "gotcha" factor and how many people post.
Anderson rode up the stairs, whistling. This trip might be fun after all.
-- World of Ptavvs
TANSTAAFI: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free iPod.
Not another weapon for the terrorists!
Told him where he can shove either the jet engine or the wheelchair...
He wouldn't have felt it then...
My old high school friend, Tim Arfons.
You should see the packing cases the old B58 Hustler engines came in.
I'd say this guy should me Lawnchair Larry, who attached helium weather balloons to his Sears aluminum lawnchair and tried to control his height with a pellet gun. He got cold and dropped the gun. oops
http://www.corestore.org/turbine.htm
and the obligatory
http://marineturbine.com/motorsports.
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
From the Department of Redundancy Department:
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
That reminds me of a nice werewolf movie from the 80's: silver bullet.
The main character was a paralytic boy, and his uncle makes him a powerful 'wellchair'.
The AARP Winter Nationals!
>> Practice Safe Hex
He may not be trying to get rid of the old woman, but apparently he has not replaced her wheel chair as well. But even he is planning to, would you trust someone who set up a jet engine in your whell chair while you were out in the weekend?
So if this is anything like SouthPark will this create a wormhole and send the occupant back to the age of dinosaurs?
Imagine the physics old robot voice could do with one of these puppies?!
-psy
Jet. Powered. Beer. Cooler.
Best quote: " I knew from some long forgotten physics lecture that when a liquid expands into a gas it will draw heat from its surroundings. And I happened to have a source of a suitable liquid right in my shed in the form of a LPG cylinder (liquid petroleum gas). What I needed was a way to use up a lot of fuel very, very quickly. What I needed was a jet engine! "
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
welcome our new jet powered granny overlords.
The BBC is reporting on the results on the Beeb.
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
This reminds of the Movie "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0205000/) the chick with wooden leg does this.. But Movies only explore ideas, and good to see the MAN is not done inventing :)
This brought a painful flashback of the movie Freddie Got Fingered. Probably the worst movie ever made. Tom Green's character is a parapolegic that builds a rocket powered wheel chair. Maybe this was the inspiration?
Did Mrs. Cannella just take out a life insurance policy on this guy?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
some pics here:
o n/
t ml
http://www.outsideconnection.com/gallant/hpv/visi
an article:
http://www.agunn.com/work/seaweek/sw010215-zoom.h
And there's a pic of a conventional bike with a jet attached here:
http://bikerodnkustom2.homestead.com/rQr2.html
Early racecar drivers didn't wear seatbelts either as the fuel tanks were so prone to catching fire that it was better to be thrown out of your vehicle than to be strapped into it. With the development of the fuel cell, it is now much safer to be in a harness, of course but back then, 7/10 motorsport deaths were due to fire.
$#!^ happens, but why does it always have to happen to me???
One of the things I loved about Mad Max was that no matter how scummy the bikers were, they ALL wore helments!
www.eFax.com are spammers
She was chairbound for the last ten years of her life (bloody MS) and enjoyed hurtling about in her outdoor GT wheelchair at maybe 10-15mph(?) A jet propelled 60mph machine would have pleased her no end. Full speed ahead and damn the torpedos!
...someone makes a wheelchair powered jet!
I myself am in a wheelchair and have been considering some "added mobility" features.
I don't want plain old electric motors. I want to have to wheel myself around with muscle mass. I'm in a wheelchair. I need all the excercise I can get.
But for longer distance or varying conditions, having other means is nice.
Where are the details? plans? How do I outfit myself with a jet engine? What kind of jet engine is it? turbine? pulse jet?
For the curious, my current plan is to hand build a wankel. Actually the whole engine will be hand built. Central keyed axle going through a series of flat modules; one power pack (battery+starter/generator), one wankel, one ducted fan assembly. The ducted fan will have two exhausts with louvres on the back to change the ratio of thrust to lift.
The modules will be enclosed in aluminum. The mounting bolts will be electrically isolated from the chassis, and serve as power distribution. Fuel will come from a propane tank; I'll have an emergency camp stove propane tank to guarantee I can always get back to my car to swap out.
That should give me a nice self contained bolt on ground effect system. I only plan on using it when on rough terrain (wheelchairs don't like gravel)... so I can buy a second chair and modify it for that purpose. When the GE engine is off, the chair will just sit on its legs (traditional style chair legs with big rubber feet for stability and traction)
Hmmm does this mean it'll still be a wheelchair?
But yeah I'd consider doing all/some of this with a jet engine; if I could find some details...
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
He's plainly nuts, but I salute his cojones.
For some reason I got a chuckle out of this sentence.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Does he just throw his mother-in-law overboard with some sort of tether?
Why does he need the tether?
/ very lucky, has a great mother in law
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
I can't beleive nobody even mentioned Freddy Got Fingered, they stole this idea right out of that movie! Im not trolling, I think that the idea is cool.
Interesting. He's just a tinkerer having fun, but if you RTFA, you saw the pictures of him using his rocket powered wheelchair on some kind of track. He doesn't need a wheelchair himself, it actually is his mother-in-law's, but he's going to end up in one sooner or later, as he goes 60 mph without any apparent safety equipment in a wheelchair that was designed for a top speed of, say, 5 mph.
I guess he'll at least be able to get around quickly.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
Hmmm. Maybe it's a market niche for Armadillo Aerospace?
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
Isn't that what manditory auto (bike) insurance is for? Maybe it doesn't work the same way where you are, but here liability and medical expense insurance is mandatory for all motor vehicles. It's also (at least until the fascist provincial government privatizes it) provided by a crown corporation that is VERY good about documented medical expenses, and has reasonable rates for basic insurance. Own damage (repairs to your vehicle, even if you're liable) and fire, theft, and vandalism insurance can be had from ICBC (the crown corp), BCAA (like AAA), or private insurers.
"Operator; I'd like to report a speeding wheelchair."
anyone else listen to the old Phreak Radio calls?
It's about time!
"What does a man with too much time, a jet engine, and his mother-in-law's wheelchair, do?"
Well I guess this means that grandma will not have to worry about being run over by reindeer anymore.
This?
emt 377 emt 4
Now onto step two, strap the mother-in-law to it and set it on cruise control and lots of fuel..
"Mr Cannella's mother-in-law, who had bought a new wheelchair, has Parkinson's disease."
I also noticed that the weelchair has a steering wheel.
Wheelchair
Jet engine
Parkinsons
????
Profit! (Inheritance)
- "They misunderestimated me."
Now my comments about getting speeding tickets and drinking and driving to all my friends in wheelchairs finally has merit!
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Johnson & Johnson have a wheelchair that is part manual / part powered called the iGlide.
;)
You may want to check it out depending on your level of ability. Unless you really insist on the DIY approach....
Thatlittle old lady from Pasadena little old lady from Pasadena won't have nothin on Giuseppe's mother in law.
nice... no sling seat... reduced incidence of RSI... and I'm assuming I can throttle the power assist way down and only use it when necessary (ramps, grass are good. Gravel is REALLY hard with my current chair, but the problem is not only lift as you end up lifting your weight over every minor rock, but traction as well...)
The main reason I want to DIY is a) I can create something that doesn't exist yet and b) I will only be intermittently in a chair. I can walk just fine, though with some pain. I can't walk more than about 10 meters at a time though; in the future this should expand to 50 meters or so as I strengthen my leg muscles. However, any effort more than that and I run the risk of severe long term damage... thus (after I get the current problem surgically corrected) I will need some sort of solution for long outdoor events.
Since ground effect is much better than wheels at handling semi-rough terrain it seemed like a natural answer... Either that or nice fat wheels, but then you lose some mobility as it gets harder to turn and go through doors...
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
...the Darwin Awards people yet?
I can smell an award in the making.
...with Timmy's wheel chair years ago.
Slap some wings on the side, and then a tail, and voila, here we have a single passenger aircraft!
A lot of the mobility in gravel really comes to down to the wheels, imo. For ex, my chair uses the rollerblade style front casters. Well, obviously, that's a pita when you're on grass or gravel. However, the turning radius and overall mobility is excellent on more solid surfaces.
The backwheels also play a part in it. I run a solid rubber "kik" tire which has the advantage of long life and never getting flat. The disadvantage is that they offer a rougher ride and in gravel/sand, they sink. On the other hand, tubular tires especially knobby tires, they handle much better on those surfaces. Downside, they're not particular keen for agility and have the inconvenience of narrowing your clearance indoors.
I use to keep two sets of wheels for these very issues.
I bet he would be going a lot faster and with much more stability if he had strapped this engine onto a wheelchair with bigger wheels... Like the ones that typically get used by people that can wheel themselves.
I have solid rubber wheels; they hate gravel and sand. I wouldn't mind some tubular knobbys... but I'd much rather just have a GE vehicle... especially since the main event I go to every year is the lake where the Jason movies were filmed. I'd love to try my chair out on that!!!! I'm thinking removable floats so its power-off condition is safe. Luckily I can still swim (though painfully) so getting dumped on the water isn't a huge issue...
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
I agree that I don't like the government forcing me to wear a seatbelt or a helmet, even though I think it's a good idea. But here's an interesting variation: you don't have to wear a helmet but you will be ineligible for any sort of government assistance should you be in an accident while not wearing your helmet.
Better?
Save a couple of thousand quid. Wren do a kit which can be had for a few hundred quid:
m
http://www.wren-turbines.com/
Ideal for your home built cruise missile.
Alternatively, you can build one out of a car turbocharger, there are plans and kits to do that as well.
e.g.
http://pfranc.com/projects/turbine/top.ht
Bill Nye makes turbochargers?
Shouldn't this twit be wearing a helmet?
The BBC is reporting on the results on the Beeb.
As opposed to the BBC reporting the results on MTV or al-Jazeera? Really, that sentence was quite helpful and conveyed a lot of info!
"BBC has story", yet in so many more words.
Global warming is neither science, nor politics. It is a religion.
"Er, yes," said the Captain, "yes, it's all part of the plan I think. There was a terribly good reason for it which I can't quite remember at the moment. It was something to with ... er ..."
Ford exploded.
"You're a load of useless bloody loonies!" he shouted.
"Ah yes, that was it," beamed the Captain, "that was the reason."
Read my blog: HansMast.com
...or he's going to end up needing that wheelchair for himself. If he lives.