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Like other commenters, I agree that this is roughly equal parts awesome (because flying suits are awesome, and also because rapid response from medical professi
by unwind 6y ago
Like other commenters, I agree that this is roughly equal parts awesome (because flying suits are awesome, and also because rapid response from medical professionals in the field is too), equal parts silly/gimmicky/unlikely.
Also, why is the BBC feeling a need to put quotes around "fly" in the article? If a person is, like, lifting off from the ground, and moving through the air in a controlled fashion driven by jet engines, isn't that pretty exactly flying, without quotes?
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago> If a person is, like, lifting off from the ground, and moving through the air in a controlled fashion driven by jet engines, isn't that pretty exactly flying? It depends, are they reaching a height where the Wing-in-ground effect is negligible? If they have to stay below that, then no, not really flying. Unless you'd say that a hovercraft or ekranoplan also flies. Or they could just be staying low because it might be insanely dangerous if the operator loses control at even slight altitude.
- dogma1138 6y agoA hovercraft doesn’t fly not because the wing in ground effect but because it doesn’t have 6 degrees of freedom which constitutes flying. A sub or a torpedo can fly through the water just like an airplane or a missile do through air.
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y agoDoes an ekranoplan "fly" then ?
- dogma1138 6y agoCan it move in 6 degrees of freedom?
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y agoI have no idea what that means, that's why I asked.
- dogma1138 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_freedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_freedom If not it isn't really flying. I don't know if it moves around with forces in 6DOF or not either.
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y agoUp to a max altitude of 7 meters (at best), sure, an Ekranoplan has got all the degrees of freedom that other aircraft have, Which as was pointed out here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24629545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24629545 , is not 6 Imho no, an Ekranoplan does not fly freely. Nothing to do with a bogus DOF count though
- barumi 6y ago> Nothing to do with a bogus DOF count though It seems that you don't understand the implication of the DOF count. Flying means moving freely through the air. That, colloquially, means 6degree of freedom movement through space. It means looping a, it means barrel rolls, it means it can run circles and go backwards and move upside down. You know, flying. Ekranoplans fly as much as an hovercraft does, which mean they don't. Case in point: they are unable to do 6dof movement. An ekranoplan doesn't do barrel rolls for example.
- treetoppin 6y agoI guess I'm confused. If an aircraft can't go backwards or do a loop, does that mean it's not flying? Because as far as I know, every fixed wing aircraft is incapable of going in reverse, and most can't do a loop. Not trying to pick on your defenition of flight based on degrees of freedom, but that doesn't seem to match any definition of flight I've run across.
- _Microft 6y agoWhere did you get this idea of flying? I wondered if I had a misconception there but any source I could quickly find on the web disagrees with the "can move with six degrees of freedom" definition and uses a definition like "doesn't touch ground or sea while moving through the air" instead. (Wikipedia on "Flight" / "Ekranoplan" / "Ground-effect vehicle", Merriam Webster on the word "Flight", and search for "what is flight" if that's not enough).
- karmakaze 6y agoFlight is typically 4DOF: (throttle, pitch, roll, yaw). There is no horizontal or vertical 'strafing' ability.
- KineticLensman 6y agoThe platform can move in the vertical and horizontal, e.g by exploiting a crosswind.
- robotresearcher 6y agoHelicopters and hummingbirds fly. And flies, they fly too. And there are a lot more flies flying than planes.
- twic 6y agoTerminology nit: the effect is the ground effect; the vehicle might be a wing-in-ground-effect craft.
- robotresearcher 6y agoThe wing-in-ground effect adds a great deal of drag, and is avoided in typical applications.
- perilunar 6y agoGround effect reduces drag.
- robotresearcher 6y agoAnd the effect of putting your wing IN the ground is what? The wing-in-ground effect. It’s a dumb little joke.
- mehrdadn 6y agoI'm guessing it's probably because being just above the ground is something people might refer to as "hovering".
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- dogma1138 6y agoBecause it was a direct quote from the source, this is the BBC not your friend Becky with her air quotes.
- chrisseaton 6y ago> Also, why is the BBC feeling a need to put quotes around "fly" in the article? The BBC is fastidious about quoting. It's a good thing. They don't report that 'man killed by a speeding car' - instead they report 'man "killed by a speeding car"' because they're quoting their source that told them what happened, not telling you what happened themselves because they weren't there and don't know that.