It seems like every month there is some brand new gadget that is geared towards helping people fly in one way or another. An Australian inventor has come up with what he calls a “Hoverbike.”
There have been plenty of devices that have tried to get people into the sky, such as the human powered, pedal helicopter that has recently been built by scientists at the University of Maryland. There are also new ways to make it feel as though people or flying (or at least hovering” when doing something like “night skating” in which the skate boards glow while the rest of the surroundings are completely blacked out.
Chris Malloy, the Australian inventor has put together what he calls a hover bike that looks an awful like a speederbike from “Return of the Jedi.” While the hoverbike is supposed to be able to move at speeds of 170 MPH and fly as high as 10,000 feet in the air. Of course, both of these specifications haven’t currently been tested. At the moment the most flying this particular bike does it to be anchored to the ground while the bike hovers a few feet in the air. This of course means that at the very least, the bike can hover using its two giant fans, there just doesn’t seem to be a way to actually steer the thing or fly it as high as Malloy wants just yet.
Malloy has been building the machine for several years now and says that apart from a couple of donations from friends, he has funded the project all by himself. He also says that there have been a few volunteers who have helped him build it, but this particular project is not being put together by a team of researchers or scientists.
Malloy has already outlined the kind of uses he envisions the hoverbike being able to assist with including, aerial cattle mustering, aerial survey, power line inspection and military and emergency services. Of course in order to use the machine it will still need to be perfected and tested and it appears that it still just a little ways off.
