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#1 2018-03-25 07:59:28
$2 million prize for a personal flying machine.
Boeing will give $2 million to anyone who can build a functional jetpack.
Flying cars are so passé
By Andrew J. Hawkins@andyjayhawk Sep 26, 2017, 12:30pm EDT
https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/26/1636 … ompetition
Deadline for submitting a proposal outline is April 4, 2018.
This should be doable with the micro turbojets available now, such as this:
http://www.pbsaerospace.com/our-product … jet-engine
They have better than a 10 to 1 thrust to weight ratio, so can lift off with payload even in VTVL mode. A problem might be the fuel burn rate. At max thrust of 88 lbs, the burn rate is 42 oz per minute. Say you needed three engines to liftoff with an average man, the weight of the engines, supporting structures and fuel. That's 120 oz per minute. Even a 10 minute flight would need 120*10 = 1,200 oz, or 75 pounds. That's alot of fuel to carry on your back. And that also subtracts from the payload that can be carried.
Bob Clark
Last edited by RGClark (2018-04-03 13:16:38)
Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):
“Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”
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#2 2018-03-25 08:58:38
- Terraformer
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Re: $2 million prize for a personal flying machine.
Jetpacks don't make much sense, at least not sustained flight ones. Now, a pack that provides a few seconds of thrust at time in order to leap over buildings, or jump from great heights at land safely, now that would be useful.
"I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy." - If this forum was a Mars Colony
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#3 2018-03-25 09:23:45
- SpaceNut
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Re: $2 million prize for a personal flying machine.
That would be hell in a crowded city for flight control and crashes since we barely can do it in cars.
So the energy density costs to mass to make it a reality needs to be better than comuting in a car....
Sure is technology that should be worked on as some day we will achieve the goals.
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#4 2018-03-25 10:50:19
Re: $2 million prize for a personal flying machine.
Jetpacks don't make much sense, at least not sustained flight ones. Now, a pack that provides a few seconds of thrust at time in order to leap over buildings, or jump from great heights at land safely, now that would be useful.
A helicopter version is big and ungainly, but can fly for 30 minutes:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/418568/fan-pack/
One using micro turbojets is more compact but can only fly 10 minutes:
https://newatlas.com/jetpack-aviation-n … ght/40286/
Bob Clark
Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):
“Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”
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#5 2018-03-25 16:27:40
- SpaceNut
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Re: $2 million prize for a personal flying machine.
Some more links to information about how long this has been going on...mini-Fords and mini-Chryslers as they were at the start of the automotive industry, except in this case they would be at the start of the personal flying industry,
$1 million top prize—to inventors of "safe, quiet, ultra-compact, near-VTOL personal flying devices capable of flying 20 miles while carrying a single person." VTOL stands for vertical take-off and landing,
https://www.geekwire.com/2017/beyond-je … -machines/
Over the next two years, the GoFly Prize program aims to provide incentives for teams to develop one-person flying devices that are capable of making vertical or near-vertical takeoffs and taking 20-mile aerial trips — without refueling or recharging.
“Two years from now, we will be able to look to the sky and say, ‘Look at that person flying,'” GoFly CEO Gwen Lighter told GeekWire. Lighter, an entrepreneur based in Connecticut, has been working with NASA and other organizations for years to get GoFly off the ground.
The process for the competition, coordinated through the HeroX online platform for tech challenges, calls for doling out the prize money in three phases.
The first phase will award 10 prizes of $20,000 each in mid-2018, based on written technical specifications. Phase II sets aside four $50,000 prizes for the best prototypes and revised materials from Phase I. Those prizes will be given out in March 2019.
Phase III comes to its climax with a fly-off in the fall of 2019. The $1 million grand prize will be awarded based on an overall score that considers speed, noise and size. Other prizes, ranging from $100,000 to $250,000, will recognize the most disruptive technology, the quietest device that satisfies the contest’s rules, and the smallest flying machine.
Entries will be judged by a panel of aviation experts from Boeing and other organizations.
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#6 2018-03-30 09:58:18
Re: $2 million prize for a personal flying machine.
Another possibility:
Scorpion 3 - World's First Hoverbike.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XdbWYzM4oY
Bob Clark
Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):
“Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”
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