3 ms·

Are they flying or falling with style?

• rm445 11y ago
  More towards the latter, it appears. They're certainly air-launched and parachute-landed. Still I think there's a reasonable case that you should call it flight if they are capable of straight level powered flight while the fuel lasts, but I don't think they're quite there. The website cites a flight time of 6 to 13 minutes - I suspect that is the peak of the trade-off between launch weight, fuel duration and descent time. Rather than 6-13 minutes of powered flight followed by the equivalent of a parachute jump. (EDIT: I've just seen on the developer's wikipedia entry that he claims stable level flight has been achieved. Very impressive - though one might still conjecture that that might only be achievable at certain lower fuel levels). Depending on the amount of control the pilot has, I'd expect them to be capable of levelling out and making short ascents, basically trading speed for height. And above all it looks like great FUN!