Re: air scooter

Joel Garry wrote:
> >The only thing I really dislike looking at the info is the inability to auto-rotate.
>
> That's what those "ballistic emergency chutes" are for. One always
> wonders how such a device avoids the Big (ouch) Whirl (ouch) ing (ouch)
> Blades (ouch). :-)

Not sure if I will stake my life on them though Joel. I know there's a guy who pulled it in his Cirrus after some emergency and the thing worked as designed. Problem is that when crusing one has the luxury of being far higher than being in circuit or on approach or takeoff. And that's usually where those gremlins hang about. Besides, it did not help Scott Anderson... Though Scott would likely want to be remembered as trying to make the Cirrus (with its ballistic chute) a safe plane as possible for pilots.

> The solotrek page came up blank for me (probably proxies, sigh).

Now that is an interesting thing. VTOL frame - kind of like a jetpack, but you strap yourself into it. It uses two directional rotors. Last time I kept tracked of their development, they were planning tethered tests at the end of 2003 (if I recall correctly). Not sure how far they have gotten since.

Try the following to see some pictures:
http://images.google.com/images?q=solotrek&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

--
Billy