What if you happen to might take a shopper drone, douse it with progress serum, and make it large enough to fly round in?
It is a hen! It is a aircraft! It is Superdrone!
That is a brainstorm that appears to have occurred to a very good variety of individuals — together with, now, the makers of the AK-47 assault rifle.
Kalashnikov Concern, a part of Russian protection firm Rostec, posted a video to YouTube this week that provides a glimpse of a “flying automotive” prototype, Standard Mechanics experiences.
The gadget, which appears way more dronelike than carlike, sports activities 16 rotors the dimensions of ceiling followers. They’re mounted on a metallic body that surrounds a minimal pilot’s perch and what appears like a few suitcase-size batteries.
It is not clear what, precisely, the factor can be used for. Let’s simply say it in all probability will not be zipping over battlefields anytime quickly; one imagines it would not take a lot to knock it — and the pilot — out of the sky.
The gizmo joins comparable contraptions within the drone-so-big-you-can-ride-it class. There’s Google co-founder Larry Web page’s Kitty Hawk Flyer. There’s Singapore’s proposed flying drone taxis. There’s the US Military Analysis Laboratory’s hoverbikes. And there is the slick, mini-helicopter-like SureFly and the equally sexy-looking Ehang 184. Oh, and there is Airbus’ drone-meets-pod idea.
There’re additionally extra home-spun, mad-inventor-y takes on the thought. The Volocopter is one. Colin Furze’s hoverbike is one other. After which there’s this factor, from YouTube’s amazingdiyprojects.
And if all these appear a bit too complicated, there’s all the time the tie-a-rope-to-a-drone-and-hang-on-for-dear-life strategy.