Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Flying Bicycle Is Real, Takes First Flight

Posted by Soulskill on from the yes,-you-were-definitely-the-first-one-to-think-of-an-ET-joke dept.

colinneagle writes "Bringing us one step closer to the hover-boards and flying cars that mid-20th century pop culture had predicted we would have by the year 2000, three Czech companies have come together to develop a functional flying bicycle. Designed by Technodat, Evektor, and Duratec, the flying bicycle weighs a little more than 187 lbs and limits its takeoff weight to about 350 lbs, according to a report from Polish bicycle news site Biketrendy. The report claims the bicycle, which is still just a prototype, is capable of staying in the air for about six minutes, although the companies working on the project hope to extend that to 50 minutes and top speeds of about 30 miles per hour. Currently, the fans propelling the bicycle are powered by a 50Ah battery."

4 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Gossamer Albatross by Danzigism · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Gossamer Albatross is a human-powered aircraft built by American aeronautical engineer Dr. Paul B. MacCready's company AeroVironment. On June 12, 1979 it completed a successful crossing of the English Channel to win the second Kremer prize. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Albatross I'd like to see more of these. This was over 30 years ago. C'mon people.

    --
    *plays the Apogee theme song music*
  2. Re:not a bicycle by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

    Now - something purely human-powered that could fly would be impressive, but this is not.

    It might be impressive, but it would not be new. Flying bicycles have been around for a while. The Gossamer Albatross was pedaled over the English Channel in 1979, a distance of over 22 miles.

    The hard part is not getting a bicycle to fly, but to get it to hover with human power.

  3. Re:not a bicycle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Now - something purely human-powered that could fly would be impressive, but this is not.

    It might be impressive, but it would not be new. Flying bicycles have been around for a while. The Gossamer Albatross was pedaled over the English Channel in 1979, a distance of over 22 miles.

    The hard part is not getting a bicycle to fly, but to get it to hover with human power.

    This may have been achieved today. See here:

    http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/06/human-powered-helicopter-won/

  4. Re:Noisy isn't it. by Alsee · · Score: 4, Informative

    350 pound flight capacity minus 187 pound vehicle weight seems to indicate a 163 pound (74 kilo) passenger limit. Not great, but that's certainly not "anorexic child-size styrofoam dummy" either. I'm an adult male, I could get there if I cut out the peanutbuttercups and switched to diet soda.

    Oh well, I guess that means I'm never going to be able to ride it. Diet soda is vile.
    How about they work on inventing that? Soda that tastes like sugar-water without being sugar-water? Chuckle.

    -

    --
    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.