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The World’s smallest one person helicopter

by Dhiram Shah

Sean Connery using a Jet Pack to escape from the bad guys in the 007 flick “Thunderball” was cool, after seeing something like that everyone of us must have thought if only…. Here is a more practical and comfortable alternative, the GEN H-4 from Gene corporation – Japan is your personal helicopter. It comes with a seat and landing gear so all you have to do is strap on and you are ready to go. Unlike traditional helicopters it has 2 sets of coaxial, contra-rotating rotors (KA-52 Hokum for all you military buffs) which eliminates the need of a tail rotor for balancing. The rotors have a length of only 4 meters (118 inches) so no parking problems too. It is powered by 4 lightweight 125 cc 2 cylinder engines which use standard gasoline. The GEN H-4 can fly to a maximum altitude of 1000 meters at a top speed of 90 km/hr (59 mph) for upto 30 minutes. You dont require a license to fly the GEN H-4 in Japan and the inventors claim it is easy as riding a bicycle and with just 2 hours of practice you can master it. The controls also resemble a bicycle handle.



(Images and Video after the jump)



You dont get the GEN H-4 as a ready unit, Gene corp is selling it as assembly kits. It is available in Japan for 3,780,000 Yen ($ 32,500).





Bicycle like controls are easy to use.





Props to Dr. Joao Freire from Brazil for the video.

AceCraft is the licensed distributor in the US and sells the GEN H-4 for $ 30,000.