From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Sun Sep 19 1999 - 14:39:02 MDT
> > > I think we may have a real solution for the Jet Pack
> > > vs. Air Car debate. Check out http://www.solotrek.com/
> >
> > If they are able to control this thing, I could believe
> > ranges of 50 to 80 km with speeds of up to about
> > 100 km/hr. Whaddya think, Doug? spike
> >
> > Doug Jones wrote:
> Well, that swagger stance would get uncomfortable in a hurry- I wrote to
> solotrek a month ago, suggesting a set of footpegs inboard of the vehicle's
> legs.
Ja, I ignored that. I imagined a cloth sling kind of seat, not so different
from those found on a hang glider, with a minimal tripod (sans wheels)
landing/support gear. This is order to save weight.
> The photos of the prototype showed a *huge* control authority- large
> pitch motions of the fans, both collectively and differential, could induce
> excessive rates.
I had imagined some microprocessor based control system using inputs
from ring laser gyros and such, with little input from the meat. Biounits
cannot be trusted with such tweaky and dangerous control tasks, as
you may recall from my comments regarding Rotary Rocket. The THAAD
system demonstrated how very competent automated control has
become.
> Even with those fairly large fans, the power demand will be very high, and
> weightlifting capacity limited.
Ja, my thoughts exactly. When looking at the air car concept, I never
got as far as the control or practicality aspects, for the power to weight
numbers did not look sufficient to get off the ground, never mind
achieving the wildly exaggerated performance numbers that were
being quoted.
With this dual tilt rotor concept, they appear to be close to the power
to weight numbers that will get them off the ground, however I suspect
that the fuel carrying capacity will be small. I will go so far as to
say: a Gina Miller sized person might be able to fly such a device,
whereas a Lee Crocker or Greg Burch would be outta luck. Their
design looks like it could still shed a few kilos, but the numbers are
close to what I calculated, using a light 4 cylinder 2 stroke racing engine,
130ish horsepower, already developed by the motorcycle crowd.
The thing will be dangerous and noisy as all hell, but I am not
arguing for the practicality of the device for the general proletariate.
As a special purpose military machine, perhaps, and all-around
cool toy, it would kick ass, would it not? }8-] spike
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