h a l f b a k e r yAlas, poor spelling!
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A small helium filled blimp, with a single seat hanging underneath. Comes with a padded electromagnetic grapple gun. Once afloat, use a small onboard electric motor to get to a road and use the grapple gun to attach yourself to a car going in the same direction that you intend to go. If needed, you
can switch cars to stay on your route, or detach completely if you feel that you are going too fast.
Heavier-than-air "kite" versions are also available, if you are feeling adventurous and stupid.
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Annotation:
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I love it. If the kite is steerable, you could dip down to
street level for low bridges. |
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Also, You can choose the route you take, if you know a road has such hazards, you should not be on it in the first place. |
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I never tried hopping a freight train because there was no telling where I'd end up. This would seperate the planners from the boys very quickly, but I'd love to have had one. |
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Seems like drag would be a pretty big problem.
Blimps aren't known for their aerodynamics, and
travelling at highway speeds while tethered to a car
would probably be a terrifying experience. My guess
is you'd end up being towed behind the car at more
or less the same height as the tether's attachment
point. You'd need wings and some sort of pitch
control to stay aloft at speed, so the "lighter than
air" bit would only be
relevant when stopped. You'd also need some sort of
roll or yaw control so you're not whipped off the road
whenever it curves. Given the huge counteracting
forces on a relatively tiny aircraft, and the proximity
to the ground, this would be a real challenge to fly
successfully. The pilot falling asleep would be the
least of your concerns. |
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In sum, this idea is about as half-baked as they come.
I proudly award you this croissant, and a teary-eyed
salute to your genius. |
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It would not be hard to put in a control system that maintained steering relative to the attached vehicle, and to maintain altitude. |
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You're definitely right about needing wings to keep from ending up dragged along the road, but that could be minimal. |
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Perhaps a better way to achieve the goal would be to
use a small helicopter with a clutch between the rotor
and the engine. You could power the rotor to achieve
initial lift and hover over the road, then once you've
tethered you could disengage and shut off the engine,
allowing the blades to autorotate—in essence, turning
your helicopter into an externally powered autogyro. |
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// I never tried hopping a freight train because there was
no telling where I'd end up. // |
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There's a little metal tube with a hinged cap attached to
the side of every freight car at about waist height. Any
loaded car will have a rolled-up routing card in there with
the destination, timetable, and marshalling order written
on it. Happy trails. |
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//Any loaded car will have a rolled-up routing card in there |
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Shades of the opening night of Wagner opera - one missing neck (of the dragon Siegfried is supposed to fight). Slip of pencil at the post office , Bayreuth became Beirut..so read those cards carefully... |
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Some glide option could help with those pesky bridges, tunnels and powerlines. Cut loose, coast over, and redeploy on a new victim - er, vehicle. |
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Sounds awfully like the skateboard Y.T. rode in Snow
Crash. |
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YT's skateboard wasn't attached to the line; she used a
handheld magnetic harpoon. |
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Which was attached to a line, which she held. |
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Right. For some reason, I got the impression that the line
was attached to blimp the first time I read this post. |
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Nope, to a "grapple gun". Sorry, but baked in popular
fiction. Neal Stephenson should be made an
honorary halfbaker. |
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I think somebody beat you to that. |
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More than likely. I missed four years' or so of
postings. |
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Four years? Is that all? It felt like you were away for
weeks... |
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I agree with [ytk], the aerodynamics of a balloon
would doom the project. better to go with an
autogyro or hang glider and this is all pretty
derivative of Snow Crash. |
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But I guess this is at least halfbaked, so (+). |
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Though I thought this was going to go really
HHGTTG and have the balloon get you close
enough so the magne-tether could hook to the
Vogon battle cruiser directly so you wouldn't have
to rely on the goodness/Vogon hatred of the
Dentrassi for the hitch, but then you'd need more
than a towel to keep your blood from boiling. |
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