Star Wars fanatics have no doubt been awaiting the hover bikes featured in ‘Star Wars: Return of the Jedi’ and now Manhattan based company Aerofex have released plans to get a commercially available product available for 2017.
Aerofex showed off their hover bike concept 2 years ago which got star wars fans among many others sitting on the edge of their seat. Now, you better get the savings fund going as they expect to ready to Aero-X to the market in 2017 at a price of $85 000. If you want to guarantee yours now you can make a $5000 deposit right away.
According to the company’s website, the hover bike can fly 10 feet off the ground at 45 mph for up to 45 minutes, re-defining the meaning of off-road vehicles. The frame is made of carbon fibre parts for both strength and lightweight and it can carry two passengers at a time. The bike is powered by a 240 hp three-rotor rotary engine and Aerofex, led by aerospace engineer Mark DeRoche, have seemed to have overcome tough engineering challenges involving stability and control issues that plagued similar hover vehicles in past decades.
“We’ve done a lot of work to learn how to remove [the complexity of helicopter controls],” Aerofex founder and Chief Technology Officer Mark De Roche told Discovery News. ”That’s the key for someone who only has motorcycle experience to able able to get on it and feel comfortable right away.”
The complexity he mentions is a phenomenon known as ‘coupling’ where if the pilot leans forward to induce forward motion, the craft may also steer left a little due to the aerodynamics of the spinning rotors. Helicopter pilots need to learn how to counteract this during training however, the Aero-X doesn’t require any special training or licenses and leaning forward will simply drive the craft forward.
The future is here at last! Wel kinda, you’re gunna have to wait 3 years and save up $85 000 but I’m sure many of you reading this will be screaming “take my money!”.
Source:http://interestingengineering.com/
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