Ok, for my next trick......

1st, we have the Segway. Gyroscopically balanced, will keep going forward in the direction you lean.

2nd, we have the Moller Merlin 2000 (look it up on Google), which is a personal helicopter/plane.

Combine the two into a platform edition (albeit long, just like Green Goblin in Spiderman), and you can fly! I figure that there will be a foot pedal to tell the system how much power to give, and the Segway system will control the steering. Examples, you are standing still on it, and wish to go up, so you press the gas pedal down, and you go upwards. If you wish to land, release the gas pedal, and the Segfly (my word) will glide to the ground, as its programed to. Now, if you wish to go forward, slightly crouch (as you are in the air), and lean forward, and the Segfly will glide forward at nominal speed. If you wish to go higher and forward, hold down the gas pedal more. If you wish to turn, lean into the turn, and you will turn in that direction. Beginers will be able to take wide turns, but experts and dare devils will push the limits of it, doing sharp turns and flips (your feet will be strapped in). With the smaller parachutes available nowdays (just in case you run out of power), you can easily fly this thing to work, parachute underneath your suit, to the grocery (tie the grocieries to a rope, like in a chopper), or imitate Green Goblin. Actually, now that I think about it, this would have great military applications, because unlike the Segway, the Segfly would not have to worry about terrain.
-- DemolitionMan, Feb 13 2003

Moller Volantors http://www.laesiewo...ifo/lib/moller.html
Perhaps the M200X Volantor is what you meant? [jurist, Oct 17 2004]

Moller M400 Skycar http://www.moller.com/skycar/
[jurist, Oct 17 2004]

Green Goblin Glider http://www.heroreal...ff/gliderbelker.jpg
An illustration for those of us who have not yet seen Spiderman and have no clue what Demolition Man is going on about. [jurist, Oct 17 2004]

(??) Hiller Flight Museum http://www.hiller.o...lying-platform.html
flying platforms & other stuff based on same low tech [cloudface, Oct 17 2004]

(??) Hummingbird, Ltd. website http://www.vtol.co.il/
Israeli Hiller platform kit company [cloudface, Oct 17 2004]

Flying platforms http://www.vectorsite.net/avplatfm.html
All sorts of levitation devices [Pellepeloton, Oct 14 2006]

There is no reference on Google for a Moller Merlin 2000. There are some pictures of a Moller M400 skycar, which is a very sophisticated 4 passenger VTOL personal plane/volantor. And there are the flying saucer type vehicles I've linked to below. Frankly, though, I fail to see how either vehicle would integrate with or be enhanced by the Segway technology. Perhaps you'd be good enough to supply a more descriptive link of your own.
-- jurist, Feb 13 2003


[jurist's] link with the illustration of the Green Goblin Glider made me laugh,it has ' DANGER ' written on the side,looks particulary safe to stick a foot in there.
-- skinflaps, Feb 13 2003


I had this idea in my idea backlog on my 1/2B page. "Upsidedown gyrostabilised-copter". Or something similar. The reason it never got posted is as 'Flaps said, if you just slip out and and fall through the blades you'll make a human smoothie of youself!

Just imagine all the thrust necessary to create enough lift to accelerate you and the vehicle upwards, all through 2 ducted fans each the size of a dustbin lid and doing their damnedest to suck you through. <whirrrrrrr> <sLLlorrrrck> <whirrrrrrr>

Heh heh.
-- FloridaManatee, Feb 14 2003


Looks like the only flying the Segfly is going to be doing is on a "flight of fancy".
-- jurist, Feb 18 2003


I'm going to give this a sugerbutter bun just for the hilarity.
-- skinflaps, Feb 18 2003


Er. Well, there is something like this, so the idea might be the other half of a good recipe. It is called the Hiller flying platform and was touted in the US in the late forties and early fifties as the commuter transport of the future. It would certainly benefit from a segway style gyro system, but I think it was somewhat self-stablizing to begin with. (It was that "somewhat" plus the general antipathy at the time toward individual flying machines buzzing down city streets that withered the idea.) There is a company in Israel that can sell you a kit (or could, I don't know current status) so conceivably someone with green skin, pointy ears and a lilting cackle could combine the Segway with one of these devices.
-- cloudface, Sep 24 2003



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