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Andreas’ Personal Flying Suit (“Monocopter”) Project

63 points by xd 16y ago

burgerbrain 16y ago
I can't quite figure out how using that wouldn't roast you alive. 20 minutes with a jet turbine on your back? Ouch!
- mostly_harmless 16y ago
  well, for one thing, i dont believe it is a jet turbine. It appears that the thrust is solely produced by a giant propeller. The gas generator that runs the big fan is probably ventilated well enough not to burn the pilot.
  - aphyr 16y ago
    I'm not an airplane engine expert, but they show a compressor and turbine blade. Would that make it a jet turbine?
    - ominous_prime 16y ago
      The term "jet" (or turbojet) tends to mean that the thrust comes from the exhaust of the engine, and all the turbine's power is put back into the compressor. In a gas turbine, the turbine captures more energy from the combustion to drive a driveshaft, and the excess exhaust is dumped (or in this case, used as additional thrust for control).
  - burgerbrain 16y ago
    The article talks about it getting up to 300C. Regardless of how it works that is a little concerning.
    - buro9 16y ago
      I'd be more concerned about landing it. There's no cage around the pilot and it must weigh quite a bit, if for whatever reason you lost thrust for a moment during a descent you'd crush your lower body as you fell to the ground and the machine strapped to your back fell too.
      - camiller 16y ago
        Or even the straps of the harness restricting circulation to the pilots legs leaving them numb at landing. Ever try to walk with your foot "asleep".
- VladRussian 16y ago
  with 25m3 (800 cubic feet) per second flow of air (at the speed of 100m/s) behind your back ? (that's a mass flow and speed he needs to get through his 0.6m fan to get 250Kg of force for 120Kg device + 80 Kg pilot) Letting a bit of it out to caress your back doesn't seem to be a problem.
tricky 16y ago
IMHO this is an amazing project so there's that, but I don't understand the flying suit in general. I would much rather fly in something that had a little more structure to it and was more aerodynamically stable (e.g. a flying car) Is anyone building a quadricopter that'll hold one person and fit in a 2 car garage? I bet a lot of those would sell.
- VladRussian 16y ago
  youtube for "Piasecki Airgeep" or "Moller SkyCar" to get a feel of current (which hasn't almost changed in 50 years) state of development in this area. Development of a new aircraft is very money-hungry enterprise. Moller, while was able to advance farther than anybody else, made several flawed design decisions (the flaws became obvious only when they were really implemented and tried out in the actual prototype, not before - this is why it is also very risky endeavor) which wouldn't let his car fly successfully and discredited the idea for the wide investing public.
- burgerbrain 16y ago
  Quadricopter seem like a perfect candidate for personal air-vehicles. The maneuverability rocks and the problem of computer control seems to be pretty well understood. You could design a control system that anyone who's ever played a video-game could master, the only real danger would be people doing stupid things with them on purpose. I haven't seen any examples larger than models though, do they not scale trivially?
  - lisper 16y ago
    Nothing scales trivially in the material world. The fundamental problem is that as you scale, the strength of the structure increases as N^2 but the mass increases as N^3. > the only real danger would be people doing stupid things with them on purpose Not even close. The quadricopter design is very non-robust in the presence of a failed engine. That alone is probably a show-stopper for ever having one of these as a passenger vehicle. They do make wicked cool spy drones though.
    - 16y ago
Isamu 16y ago
In case it is unclear, this approach is a ducted fan (driven by a gas turbine) with vectored thrust nozzles. Very clever. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducted_fan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducted_fan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrust_vectoring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrust_vectoring
jberryman 16y ago
That is the most terrifying device I've seen in a while.
JoeAltmaier 16y ago
Now to find the pilot brave enough to fly the thing.

63 points by xd 16y ago

burgerbrain 16y ago

I can't quite figure out how using that wouldn't roast you alive. 20 minutes with a jet turbine on your back? Ouch!

mostly_harmless 16y ago
well, for one thing, i dont believe it is a jet turbine. It appears that the thrust is solely produced by a giant propeller. The gas generator that runs the big fan is probably ventilated well enough not to burn the pilot.
- aphyr 16y ago
  I'm not an airplane engine expert, but they show a compressor and turbine blade. Would that make it a jet turbine?
  - ominous_prime 16y ago
    The term "jet" (or turbojet) tends to mean that the thrust comes from the exhaust of the engine, and all the turbine's power is put back into the compressor. In a gas turbine, the turbine captures more energy from the combustion to drive a driveshaft, and the excess exhaust is dumped (or in this case, used as additional thrust for control).
- burgerbrain 16y ago
  The article talks about it getting up to 300C. Regardless of how it works that is a little concerning.
  - buro9 16y ago
    I'd be more concerned about landing it. There's no cage around the pilot and it must weigh quite a bit, if for whatever reason you lost thrust for a moment during a descent you'd crush your lower body as you fell to the ground and the machine strapped to your back fell too.
    - camiller 16y ago
      Or even the straps of the harness restricting circulation to the pilots legs leaving them numb at landing. Ever try to walk with your foot "asleep".
VladRussian 16y ago
with 25m3 (800 cubic feet) per second flow of air (at the speed of 100m/s) behind your back ? (that's a mass flow and speed he needs to get through his 0.6m fan to get 250Kg of force for 120Kg device + 80 Kg pilot) Letting a bit of it out to caress your back doesn't seem to be a problem.

tricky 16y ago

IMHO this is an amazing project so there's that, but I don't understand the flying suit in general. I would much rather fly in something that had a little more structure to it and was more aerodynamically stable (e.g. a flying car) Is anyone building a quadricopter that'll hold one person and fit in a 2 car garage? I bet a lot of those would sell.

VladRussian 16y ago
youtube for "Piasecki Airgeep" or "Moller SkyCar" to get a feel of current (which hasn't almost changed in 50 years) state of development in this area. Development of a new aircraft is very money-hungry enterprise. Moller, while was able to advance farther than anybody else, made several flawed design decisions (the flaws became obvious only when they were really implemented and tried out in the actual prototype, not before - this is why it is also very risky endeavor) which wouldn't let his car fly successfully and discredited the idea for the wide investing public.
burgerbrain 16y ago
Quadricopter seem like a perfect candidate for personal air-vehicles. The maneuverability rocks and the problem of computer control seems to be pretty well understood. You could design a control system that anyone who's ever played a video-game could master, the only real danger would be people doing stupid things with them on purpose. I haven't seen any examples larger than models though, do they not scale trivially?
- lisper 16y ago
  Nothing scales trivially in the material world. The fundamental problem is that as you scale, the strength of the structure increases as N^2 but the mass increases as N^3. > the only real danger would be people doing stupid things with them on purpose Not even close. The quadricopter design is very non-robust in the presence of a failed engine. That alone is probably a show-stopper for ever having one of these as a passenger vehicle. They do make wicked cool spy drones though.
  - 16y ago

Isamu 16y ago

In case it is unclear, this approach is a ducted fan (driven by a gas turbine) with vectored thrust nozzles. Very clever. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducted_fan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducted_fan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrust_vectoring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrust_vectoring

jberryman 16y ago

That is the most terrifying device I've seen in a while.

JoeAltmaier 16y ago

Now to find the pilot brave enough to fly the thing.