The Hoverbike Of My Dreams Is Almost Real

Chris Malloy is making a hoverbike. Yes, a hoverbike. It looks like half a quadrotor or Parrot AR Drone and when he’s finished, he thinks it can go as high as 10,000 feet (3000m) and as fast as 278km/h. Holy shit.

The engine that powers this baby is 1170cc and delivers 80kW to two propellers. The body is made from a Kevlar reinforced carbon fibre and the propellers are built from Tasmanian Oak with a carbon fibre edge. Its flying mechanism is the same as the Chinook helicopter: counter-rotating rotors cancel out each rotor’s torque reaction. Controlling the hoverbike should be familiar to motorcycle owners, just basic handle bars with throttle control on the right grip and up or down movement on the left.

It all sounds awesome but Malloy hasn’t properly tested the Hoverbike yet. Yeah, I know, I could be getting my hopes up for no reason. The real tests will come in the next few months and he’ll be releasing videos as they come by. As of now though, he hopes to get some investors on board and get the Hoverbike into limited production within a year and full production in the next two years. It’ll start at $US40,000. I’m going to start saving up now. [Hover-Bike via Gizmag]

LET THAT BABY LOOSE

It’s as big as a car!

The hoverbike doesn’t take off in this video, it’s just a video to visualize the airflow. PHOOEY.