Hoverbikes. Hoverbikes. HOVER BIKES !!!!

[JasonPratt]

TO BE DEVE... sorry, still in all caps.

To be developed by the US DoD. In Maryland. For the United Kingdom.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/06/22/us-airshow-france-hoverbike-idUKKBN0P21C720150622

The marketing manager for the company who seems to have won the bid, Malloy, is very excited about the considerable safety advantages of the considerable safety.

[T]here are a lot of advantages of the Hoverbike over a regular helicopter. Primarily there's safety. With adducted rotors you immediately not only protect people and property if you were to bump into them, but if you ever were to bump into somebody or property it's going to bring the aircraft out of the air. So there's a considerable safety level which is a considerably high level of safety involved there. The other thing is cost. This is much less expensive to buy a Hoverbike and much less expensive to run."

Granted, adducted rotors [sic?] do add some significant levels of safety, but we're talking about an exposed pilot on what amounts to a Cobra military machine. I... I kind of feel like some safety issues aren't really being addressed here.

I'm pretty sure I've seen earlier concept models of this thing as photos here at Grogheads somewhere, but I'm lazy busy and can't be bothered to look them up now. A contract to make them is a big step forward, though. The article did say something about an actual contract, right? I was kind of distracted by the concept of hover bikes.

That guy in California who has been trying to make a quadcopter flying car for ten+ years may be about to see a major boost in interest.

And then, once slightly safer helicopters are being massed produced... the end will come.

(Tags: this will doom us all; hover! bikes!)

(Hat-tip: Topless Robot.)

[Keunert]

i heard zhe russians are working on a tie fighter to counter this.

[mirth]

They have Hover Bike racing on Malastare. Very fast, very dangerous.