Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Home Escape Vehicle

When your only destination is *elsewhere*.
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It is easy to think of several situations where it would be desirable to flee a suburban area as quickly as possible. In the event of a nuclear threat on a nearby city, for example, it would not be practical to rapidly escape by car, for obvious reasons. Thus, suppose a vehicle similar in design to the German WWII "buzz-bomb", with several key differences. Instead of a bomb, it would hold a very simple cockpit that holds no more than one or two people and their seats/belts. The plane would be similar to the buzzbomb in that it would be launched (rocket-assisted?) from a small ramp, would run on gasoline, have no controls except for a fuel kill-switch, and land by parachute only (accelerometer-triggered.) One would point the ramp/plane (kept in a garage or backyard) in an appropriate compass direction, adjust the angle of the ramp to clear nearby trees, get in, and ignite. A cheap GPS unit / map inside would allow the occupant to determine when the plane is above a "safe" (inland, far from major targets) area. Then, the engine is killed and the parachute (whole vehicle) is triggered. The only major difficulty in producing such a vehicle would be to minimize its cost, as well as ensuring that "just the right number of people" have them (suburban airspace is somewhat finite.)
dsm, Dec 25 2001

http://www.planethalflife.com HEVs;phoenix? [technobadger, Dec 25 2001]

Catapult to work http://www.halfbake...to_20Work#999505005
. . . or catapult away from home (HECs) [bristolz, Dec 25 2001]

Extreme Commuting by V-1 Replica Extreme_20Commuting_20by_20V-1_20Replica
Bakeable ... [8th of 7, Jun 18 2009]

[link]






       Sure, it's all fun and games until there's a mass exodus. Then it's just HEVs bouncing off each other...
phoenix, Dec 25 2001
  

       How about that catapult idea someone had on here a while back . . .
bristolz, Dec 25 2001
  

       This might work. You would have to only sell it to a limited number of people though, because whoever said it was right -- launching a bunch of these at the same time would be the same as standing in ground zero. So you would have to make it a first come, first serve basis, and everybody would get their own little piece of sky.
jimithing, Dec 27 2001
  

       why not have communities with drainage ditches that double as emergency waterslides? when it gets bad, everyone dives onto the nearest waterslide and get "channeled" to a central pool area or underground railway
Arcanus, Jun 18 2009
  

       We have this.   

       Come, join us ... dont' be afraid .... you know you want to ... why hesitate ?
8th of 7, Jun 18 2009
  

       Tell me, [8th of 7], are you the 'Customer Facing' avatar of the Aggressive Hegemonising Swarm that is the Borg Collective, or are you just having a bad day?
gnomethang, Jun 18 2009
  

       We have been reading a book called "How to make friends and influence people".   

       We are giving it a try. But we are not convinced.
8th of 7, Jun 18 2009
  

       That explains that, then. No English gentleman would begin a sentence with the word 'but'.
gnomethang, Jun 18 2009
  
      
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