7 ms·

Australian built Hoverbike prepares for takeoff

94 points by yock 15y ago

tvon 15y ago
Curious why they decided to only put an apparently safety cage over part of the propellers, that's fine if you don't fall off and never wreck, but I could easily see a mishap exposing a limb to the unprotected region.
- brettnak 15y ago
  In the article he states that he will be fully covering the rotors. "The propellers, which are currently largely exposed, will also be fully covered in a mesh to ensure limbs don't get too near the blades."
  - dhughes 15y ago
    It's too bad he couldn't have an simply automatic grid at low speeds and once going the grid pulls or rotates out of the way for better efficiency. Actually a rotating grid may work using the air as its triggering force, once the air speeds up some sort of venturi force enables/disables a safety mesh across the opening.
  - extension 15y ago
    What about hair?
    - Tichy 15y ago
      Saves the cost for a haircut?
saulrh 15y ago
On the one hand, do want. On the other hand, if I remember correctly the only people that survived the Endor speeder bike chase were Jedi. On the other other hand, maybe this would finally fix the "drunk driving" problem, one way or another.
- rosser 15y ago
  It's been a while since I've seen RotJ, but I believe an Ewok survived his ride, too.
  - bh42222 15y ago
    It's a damn shame all the Ewoks perished after the Death Star explosion poisoned their planet.
    - redthrowaway 15y ago
      Depends how you define "shame".
      - arethuza 15y ago
        That reminds me of one my favorite moments in all of the video games I have played: the deeply satisfying noise Ewoks made when you shot them in Star Wars Battlefront II.
    - uptown 15y ago
      Were you hoping for it to happen before?
  - patrickgzill 15y ago
    It is well known that some Tagalog (language of the Philippines) was spoken by the Ewoks. No doubt the surviving Ewok was familiar with Manila traffic...
- hugh3 15y ago
  Bad places to use a speeder bike: 1. In a dense forest Good places to use a speeder bike: 1. Most other places The Empire was not big on picking the right tool for the right job.
  - SamReidHughes 15y ago
    Using a speeder bike in a forest is fine if you drive at a safe and comfortable speed. It's when chasing jedi that things go sour.
inam 15y ago
"...there will be room for a computer override of sorts to stop amateur pilots tipping over" I don't know. I still think there's too much of a risk in the whole thing being top heavy due to the blades being below the rider. Envisioning being at 5,000 ft. and all of the sudden looking at the world upside down while rocketing to the ground.
- saulrh 15y ago
  Most high-performance combat aircraft these days are rather aerodynamically unstable and only stay in the air because their computers are constantly correcting, and they do it all with thirty-year-old technology. Plus, remember those quadrotor drones. This thing will only crash if its computer does, and the government is going to force them to make their software so bulletproof that that's not going to happen.
  - Someone 15y ago
    …and by the time that software is so bulletproof, this technology will be 30 years old, too. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but with modern designs, you need wind tunnel data, you have to program a simulator, so that you can test control software without crashing a zillion expensive hardware systems, you need ejection seats and an array of test pilots trained in a flight simulator that behaves exactly like the hardware is thought to behave, etc. The advantage here is that you could program the software so that it always stays far, far away from danger zones. With fighter aircraft, that is not an option. However, if you do that, the thing will not sell.
    - saulrh 15y ago
      True, but this is also several orders of magnitude simpler than a modern combat aircraft. It has vastly simpler dynamics, it doesn't have to deal with control surfaces, it doesn't have to be stable with irregular patches of supersonic flow on its wings, and so on. It'll probably only take three or six years, I bet.
  - Tichy 15y ago
    How does it work - can both rotors be adjusted by computer? In which dimensions? Just wondering if it would be an interesting project to try to create a drone with two rotors instead of the current crop with four. Might be a nice playground for genetic algorithms. Then again, of course there are already helicopters. Why do these drones need four rotors anyway? Because it is that much easier to stabilize?
Kilimanjaro 15y ago
I like the concept but, can we replace a huge propeller with three or four inline and directionable small propellers for better stability?
- tocomment 15y ago
  You get less thrust that way.
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    Also worse efficiency, more complexity, more expense, and more things to go wrong.
    - saulrh 15y ago
      And, since this is already being steered by a computer-controlled vectored thrust system, giving it more fans won't make it any more stable in the first place. This system is plenty actuated.
    - Tyrant505 15y ago
      More complexity but more redundancy too.
rkon 15y ago
Google 'Ground effect'. Floating on an air cushion 2 feet off the ground just proves that he can strap two overpowered fans together -- it's not actually generating much lift like a helicopter would. He'll definitely make it to 10,000 feet... when he has two fans that are each two miles wide.
- saulrh 15y ago
  I don't think that ducted fans get a lot of wing in ground effect, given that ducts already prevent the formation of wingtip vortices.
  - rkon 15y ago
    I don't think ground effect while hovering involves wingtip vortices at all. His 'flying' figures are only speculation, and all he's proven is that he can hover. His 'official' specifications: "Hover (out of ground effect) – >10,000ft (estimated)" "Assuming mass moved is constant then a helicopter hovering in free air will be required to produce a force equivalent to V2 (speed after passing through the rotor) - V1 (starting speed of air) where V1 is some value above 0 given that the air is already moving downwards before reaching the rotor. When close to the surface (generally considered 1/3-2/3 of the rotor diameter), air forced downwards through the rotor disc is restricted in its flow by the ground. This produces an area of high pressure below the disc and in turn, reduces the duct effect and hence the downwards velocity of the air above the disc. This reduces V1 while V2 remains relatively static, so the value of V2 - V1 increases. From the equation F = M x A we can see that the 'lift' of the rotor disc is greater when in ground effect." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_(aircraft)#Wing_in_ground_effect_with_helicopters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_(aircraft)#Wing_i...
    - saulrh 15y ago
      Also from the ground effect page: Wingtip vortices are a major cause of induced drag, which refers to any drag created as a side effect of generating lift. Less drag -> more efficiency -> less power required to maintain altitude. I don't know how much of a factor this would be compared to the cushion, though, so we'll just have to wait and see. Given that he's already bought and engine and molded a nice, shiny shell, my guess is that he has plenty of power.
marssaxman 15y ago
Want this so badly.
hugh3 15y ago
I was unconvinced, until I read this bit: Possible applications include aerial cattle mustering Now I have a new dream job: hoverbike cowboy.
- underwater 15y ago
  Large farms in Australia use trail bikes and helicopters to muster cattle already.
  - whatusername 15y ago
    For refernce -- Anna Creek Station is slightly larger than Vermont or Isreal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Creek_station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Creek_station
Luyt 15y ago
Looking at http://www.gizmag.com/hoverbike/18813/picture/135534/ http://www.gizmag.com/hoverbike/18813/picture/135534/ , I'd like to see the protective grille extend over the entire front fan duct, with holes small enough that not even your hands can get through. Suppose you have a small collision with an object, which could throw you over the handlebars and into the front propeller...
- regularfry 15y ago
  I'd like to see one that's not a first-shot prototype :-)
nradov 15y ago
It's a cool idea but I expect it will have a serious dead man zone between about 40 - 200ft altitude. In that range you're too low to use a parachute but too high to survive a crash.
nikcub 15y ago
This didn't work in the 50s: http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bensen_b-10.php http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bensen_b-10.php but it may work today with fly-by-wire
maeon3 15y ago
Roll up to the club with this and accidentally put out the windows of the cars next to you when a rock gets lifted up and hurled at 250 mph.

94 points by yock 15y ago

tvon 15y ago

Curious why they decided to only put an apparently safety cage over part of the propellers, that's fine if you don't fall off and never wreck, but I could easily see a mishap exposing a limb to the unprotected region.

brettnak 15y ago
In the article he states that he will be fully covering the rotors. "The propellers, which are currently largely exposed, will also be fully covered in a mesh to ensure limbs don't get too near the blades."
- dhughes 15y ago
  It's too bad he couldn't have an simply automatic grid at low speeds and once going the grid pulls or rotates out of the way for better efficiency. Actually a rotating grid may work using the air as its triggering force, once the air speeds up some sort of venturi force enables/disables a safety mesh across the opening.
- extension 15y ago
  What about hair?
  - Tichy 15y ago
    Saves the cost for a haircut?

saulrh 15y ago

On the one hand, do want. On the other hand, if I remember correctly the only people that survived the Endor speeder bike chase were Jedi. On the other other hand, maybe this would finally fix the "drunk driving" problem, one way or another.

rosser 15y ago
It's been a while since I've seen RotJ, but I believe an Ewok survived his ride, too.
- bh42222 15y ago
  It's a damn shame all the Ewoks perished after the Death Star explosion poisoned their planet.
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    Depends how you define "shame".
    - arethuza 15y ago
      That reminds me of one my favorite moments in all of the video games I have played: the deeply satisfying noise Ewoks made when you shot them in Star Wars Battlefront II.
  - uptown 15y ago
    Were you hoping for it to happen before?
- patrickgzill 15y ago
  It is well known that some Tagalog (language of the Philippines) was spoken by the Ewoks. No doubt the surviving Ewok was familiar with Manila traffic...
hugh3 15y ago
Bad places to use a speeder bike: 1. In a dense forest Good places to use a speeder bike: 1. Most other places The Empire was not big on picking the right tool for the right job.
- SamReidHughes 15y ago
  Using a speeder bike in a forest is fine if you drive at a safe and comfortable speed. It's when chasing jedi that things go sour.

inam 15y ago

"...there will be room for a computer override of sorts to stop amateur pilots tipping over" I don't know. I still think there's too much of a risk in the whole thing being top heavy due to the blades being below the rider. Envisioning being at 5,000 ft. and all of the sudden looking at the world upside down while rocketing to the ground.

saulrh 15y ago
Most high-performance combat aircraft these days are rather aerodynamically unstable and only stay in the air because their computers are constantly correcting, and they do it all with thirty-year-old technology. Plus, remember those quadrotor drones. This thing will only crash if its computer does, and the government is going to force them to make their software so bulletproof that that's not going to happen.
- Someone 15y ago
  …and by the time that software is so bulletproof, this technology will be 30 years old, too. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but with modern designs, you need wind tunnel data, you have to program a simulator, so that you can test control software without crashing a zillion expensive hardware systems, you need ejection seats and an array of test pilots trained in a flight simulator that behaves exactly like the hardware is thought to behave, etc. The advantage here is that you could program the software so that it always stays far, far away from danger zones. With fighter aircraft, that is not an option. However, if you do that, the thing will not sell.
  - saulrh 15y ago
    True, but this is also several orders of magnitude simpler than a modern combat aircraft. It has vastly simpler dynamics, it doesn't have to deal with control surfaces, it doesn't have to be stable with irregular patches of supersonic flow on its wings, and so on. It'll probably only take three or six years, I bet.
- Tichy 15y ago
  How does it work - can both rotors be adjusted by computer? In which dimensions? Just wondering if it would be an interesting project to try to create a drone with two rotors instead of the current crop with four. Might be a nice playground for genetic algorithms. Then again, of course there are already helicopters. Why do these drones need four rotors anyway? Because it is that much easier to stabilize?

Kilimanjaro 15y ago

I like the concept but, can we replace a huge propeller with three or four inline and directionable small propellers for better stability?

tocomment 15y ago
You get less thrust that way.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  Also worse efficiency, more complexity, more expense, and more things to go wrong.
  - saulrh 15y ago
    And, since this is already being steered by a computer-controlled vectored thrust system, giving it more fans won't make it any more stable in the first place. This system is plenty actuated.
  - Tyrant505 15y ago
    More complexity but more redundancy too.

rkon 15y ago

Google 'Ground effect'. Floating on an air cushion 2 feet off the ground just proves that he can strap two overpowered fans together -- it's not actually generating much lift like a helicopter would. He'll definitely make it to 10,000 feet... when he has two fans that are each two miles wide.

saulrh 15y ago
I don't think that ducted fans get a lot of wing in ground effect, given that ducts already prevent the formation of wingtip vortices.
- rkon 15y ago
  I don't think ground effect while hovering involves wingtip vortices at all. His 'flying' figures are only speculation, and all he's proven is that he can hover. His 'official' specifications: "Hover (out of ground effect) – >10,000ft (estimated)" "Assuming mass moved is constant then a helicopter hovering in free air will be required to produce a force equivalent to V2 (speed after passing through the rotor) - V1 (starting speed of air) where V1 is some value above 0 given that the air is already moving downwards before reaching the rotor. When close to the surface (generally considered 1/3-2/3 of the rotor diameter), air forced downwards through the rotor disc is restricted in its flow by the ground. This produces an area of high pressure below the disc and in turn, reduces the duct effect and hence the downwards velocity of the air above the disc. This reduces V1 while V2 remains relatively static, so the value of V2 - V1 increases. From the equation F = M x A we can see that the 'lift' of the rotor disc is greater when in ground effect." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_(aircraft)#Wing_in_ground_effect_with_helicopters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_(aircraft)#Wing_i...
  - saulrh 15y ago
    Also from the ground effect page: Wingtip vortices are a major cause of induced drag, which refers to any drag created as a side effect of generating lift. Less drag -> more efficiency -> less power required to maintain altitude. I don't know how much of a factor this would be compared to the cushion, though, so we'll just have to wait and see. Given that he's already bought and engine and molded a nice, shiny shell, my guess is that he has plenty of power.

marssaxman 15y ago

Want this so badly.

hugh3 15y ago

I was unconvinced, until I read this bit: Possible applications include aerial cattle mustering Now I have a new dream job: hoverbike cowboy.

underwater 15y ago
Large farms in Australia use trail bikes and helicopters to muster cattle already.
- whatusername 15y ago
  For refernce -- Anna Creek Station is slightly larger than Vermont or Isreal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Creek_station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Creek_station

Luyt 15y ago

Looking at http://www.gizmag.com/hoverbike/18813/picture/135534/ http://www.gizmag.com/hoverbike/18813/picture/135534/ , I'd like to see the protective grille extend over the entire front fan duct, with holes small enough that not even your hands can get through. Suppose you have a small collision with an object, which could throw you over the handlebars and into the front propeller...

regularfry 15y ago
I'd like to see one that's not a first-shot prototype :-)

nradov 15y ago

It's a cool idea but I expect it will have a serious dead man zone between about 40 - 200ft altitude. In that range you're too low to use a parachute but too high to survive a crash.

nikcub 15y ago

This didn't work in the 50s: http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bensen_b-10.php http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bensen_b-10.php but it may work today with fly-by-wire

maeon3 15y ago

Roll up to the club with this and accidentally put out the windows of the cars next to you when a rock gets lifted up and hurled at 250 mph.