DailyDirt: Personal Flying Machines
It wasn't that long ago that people were highly skeptical of the entire concept of human flight. A few crazy people dressed up in bird-inspired outfits with wings and tried to jump from various heights in order to fly or glide -- and they were generally met with mockery. Nowadays, we know just how hard it is to achieve human-powered flight, but it has been achieved -- in several different ways. The Igor I. Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter Prize was awarded in 2013, and the Kremer Prize was won back in 1977. If you're not willing to work up a sweat, check out some of these aircraft.
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- Martin Aircraft is going to start selling a jetpack designed for first responders like firefighters -- not for recreational use (yet). The company aims to have this jetpack classified as ultralight aircraft, so it won't require a pilot's license. It'll also have a built-in parachute. [url]
- Urban Aeronautics has an autonomous flying drone called the AirMule that can lift over 1,000 pounds of stuff for about 30 miles. A civilian version of this aircraft from its Metro Skyways division is a VTOL personal flying vehicle that's kind of a flying car. [url]
- Singaporean engineering students have built a personal flying machine called 'Snowstorm' -- powered by batteries for short 5-minute flights. We've seen these kinds of personal multicopters before, and we're still waiting for battery technology to make these things fly for more enjoyable amounts of time. [url]
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