Flying Bicycle Is Real, Takes First Flight

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."

Comments

Noisy isn't it.

[davesag]

Seriously I think the greatest invention of the 21st C could be silent fans. That bike looks like great fun but the noise is a killer.

not a bicycle

[optikos]

electric scooter or motorcycle maybe, but no flight via manual pedal-power-only means not a flying bicycle

odd definition

[tverbeek]

So by "flying bicycle" they mean "personal hovercraft built around a bicycle".

Besides, wasn't something like the Gossamer Condor (built way back when I was a lad, in the 1970s) closer to the concept of a "flying bicycle"? Pedal powered, and able to fly, and it even had two wheels.