While there’s no clear indication as to when flying cars will line our driveways, and it definitely appears as though the industry’s dropped the ball on its promise to provide us with a Marty McFly hover board, the future of air-based means of personal transportation is not a complete lost cause — researchers from three Czech Republic-based companies, including Duratec, Technodat, and Evektor, have just unveiled a flying electric bike.
A group of researchers have created a flying, electric bike.
The 210lb contraption is remotely-controlled and can hover above ground for five minutes at a time. It is powered by six giant, battery-run rotating fans — two propellers on the front, two on the back, and one on each side—all strategically placed so as to provide optimal lift and balance.
The flying bike provides easy lift and superb balance while flying.
With its ability to hover for a few minutes at a time, the vehicle is less a means of flying all the way to work, but instead a convenient method for hopping and jumping through traffic jams.
The group’s flying bike can hover off the ground for up to five minutes at a time.
While the demonstration was no doubt impressive and the technology sounds promising, the prototype is, unfortunately, not near completion. The issue is the batteries and the fact that they only allow a limited amount of flight time before needing to be recharged.
“Because the capacity of batteries doubles about every 10 years, we can expect that in the future the capacity would be enough for the bike to be used for sports, tourism or similar things,” said the technical director of Duratec Bicycles, Milan Duchek.
Ten years is not a long way away. And judging by how well the bike performs in the video below, it wouldn’t be too far out there to say that the technology could be ready even sooner than that.
Story via: sky.com
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