This has got to be one of the coolest inventions I’ve seen in a while. A personal VTOL craft that runs on lightweight electric motors. It looks like a Puffin when it lands! Said to be super quiet, this NASA carbon fiber design weighs in, with batteries, at just over 300 pounds. Top speed 480 kph with a 300km range on a single charge (est 2017). And since it’s not an air breathing machine, it has effectively unlimited ceiling (with internal oxygen for pilot). This aircraft can lift a person with just 60 engine horsepower. Wow. And electric motors are between 10X and 20X more reliable than internal combustion engines.

Tags: electric flight

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 7:59 pm and is filed under Aspire, Science & Technology, Transition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.