Whitechapel - Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/ Lussumo Vanilla & Feed Publisher Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215659#Comment_215659 2010-01-22T04:48:47-08:00 2010-01-22T15:54:17-08:00 Kosmopolit http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1346 The Puffin Seriously, you built an electric powered, ultraquiet one-person plane that can land and take off from a suburban backyard and cruise at 100 MPH and you call it The Puffin? Edited to ... The Puffin

Seriously, you built an electric powered, ultraquiet one-person plane that can land and take off from a suburban backyard and cruise at 100 MPH and you call it The Puffin?

Edited to fix a typo.]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215661#Comment_215661 2010-01-22T04:58:53-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 Fan http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=6919 It looks neat! But "the cruising speed of the Puffin is expected to be 240 kph, with spurts of 480 kph possible": 1000 MPH would be supersonic. the cruising speed of the Puffin is expected to be 240 kph, with spurts of 480 kph possible": 1000 MPH would be supersonic.]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215663#Comment_215663 2010-01-22T05:10:12-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 James Puckett http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2911 Dude, it’s NASA. Those guys are the nerds weren’t even cool enough to play D&D. Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215672#Comment_215672 2010-01-22T05:56:17-08:00 2010-01-24T16:45:04-08:00 Oxbrow http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=894 If I learned one thing from childhood trips to the Bass Rock, it's that puffins are totally hardcore cliffdiving badasses. :D Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215701#Comment_215701 2010-01-22T08:52:27-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 JP Carpenter http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2485 I think 'Puffin' is quite apt for it. It wouldn't really suit an uber-macho name like 'The SkyFucker', or 'The ThunderCock-Eagle' would it? Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215711#Comment_215711 2010-01-22T10:26:05-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 JoshHechinger http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2787 There's really nothing stopping you from buying one and naming it "The ThunderCock-Eagle", either. Get that written on the side, maybe have a little picture, though I shudder to think of ...
In all seriousness, that thing looks like something out of Challengers of the Unknown or Thunderbirds, and I'm all about tooling around the skies in Jeff Tracy-esque bits of machinery.]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215713#Comment_215713 2010-01-22T10:47:15-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 Alastair http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=287 of course it will never come out... Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215714#Comment_215714 2010-01-22T10:58:56-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 costa_k http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=6592 I'd rather it be called that as opposed to something unnecessarily lame and action-movie like "THE SKYFALCON" or something like that. Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215766#Comment_215766 2010-01-22T15:48:39-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 Kosmopolit http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1346 "It looks neat! But "the cruising speed of the Puffin is expected to be 240 kph, with spurts of 480 kph possible": 1000 MPH would be supersonic. " Typo: should have been 100 ...
Typo: should have been 100 MPH.]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215769#Comment_215769 2010-01-22T16:02:34-08:00 2010-01-22T17:04:06-08:00 Kosmopolit http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1346 Alastair raises a valid point. The design of the Puffin was unveiled on January 20 by NASA aerospace engineer Mark Moore, at a meeting of the American Helicopter Society in San Francisco. A ...
The design of the Puffin was unveiled on January 20 by NASA aerospace engineer Mark Moore, at a meeting of the American Helicopter Society in San Francisco. A one-third scale demonstration model is expected to be finished by March this year, after which time they will concentrate on the transition between cruise flight and hovering.


So it's still vaporware at this point.

The initial range is expected to be only 80 KM/50 miles.

And here's no mention of cost.

Besides those technical problems there are all the social ones:

Do we want drunk drivers sharing the same airspace as passenger jets?

Walls and fences will become pretty much worthy as a form of security

No more topless bathing by the backyard pool.

Even if the technology works these may end up confined to a few specialist niches - the armed forces; couriers, law enforcement, search and rescue etc.

But if you could combine this with some really smart and highly secure piloting software and the cost came own enough this really could do all the things that it was claimed the Segway could do.]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215783#Comment_215783 2010-01-22T16:50:07-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 SilentObjector http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2587 The article also didn't mention how long a standard outlet would take to charge the battery back up to full after it's been drained fully. Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215787#Comment_215787 2010-01-22T17:04:56-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 Kosmopolit http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1346 They could always adopt the Project Better Place fast battery-switching approach. Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215822#Comment_215822 2010-01-22T19:20:34-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 zas http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=8041 Ooh, I'll put it on my World Domination Wishlist, right after NAO Design's Badonkadonk personal tank (available through Amazon for the low price of $19,999.95!!!) Badonkadonk personal tank (available through Amazon for the low price of $19,999.95!!!)]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215829#Comment_215829 2010-01-22T20:09:46-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 oldhat http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=75 ]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215847#Comment_215847 2010-01-22T22:53:27-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 Val A Lindsay II http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1680 Hmm. Reminds me of the V-22 Osprey...
]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215854#Comment_215854 2010-01-22T23:47:15-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 DavidLejeune http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4220 The upright take-off thing puts me in mind of the Lerche, but then Wikipedia goes and tells me that some companies were experimenting with that sort of design in the '50s, too. The Lockheed XFV ... Lerche, but then Wikipedia goes and tells me that some companies were experimenting with that sort of design in the '50s, too.

The Lockheed XFV seems to be the closest one to the Puffin, design-wise.]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=215902#Comment_215902 2010-01-23T07:34:02-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 Magnulus http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=6716 See, the whole area of personal flight is a bit strange to me. Unless they're made fully automatic, you cannot expect the majority of people to be able to fly one safely. You can't expect the ...
I'd LOVE to have a flying car at some point, who WOULDN'T?! However, in a world where so much emphasis is being put on lowering carbon footprints and making transportation efficient, I can't see how this is going to happen any time soon. We've (Not us personally, of course) spent all these resources putting roads all over the fucking place, it's not very likely they'll go any time soon.

However, VTOL public transport isn't an impossible prospect. Once the fuel efficiency and the safety is ironed out, I don't see why we couldn't have Sky High-style buses flying about. Also, the people driving them would have special licenses, just like you'd have to drive a normal bus, so you can be sure they'd be safe drivers, and the airways wouldn't be littered with screaming ape-men cussing each other out for not knowing how to fly.

That having been said, the Puffin really does look quite a bit like the puffin.

I'd recommend checking out James May's Big Ideas for a look through VTOL madness and flying cars. They even mention the Moller Skycar, the poster-child of flying car pipedreams.]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=216015#Comment_216015 2010-01-24T01:05:21-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 chainsaw.serenade http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4906 Am I really the only person thinking up designs for The ThunderCock-Eagle? Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=216085#Comment_216085 2010-01-24T12:41:21-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 SteadyUP http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5302 "People are gonna die in these things." - some NASA guy on MSNBC Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=216092#Comment_216092 2010-01-24T13:09:45-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 JP Carpenter http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2485 Am I really the only person thinking up designs for The ThunderCock-Eagle? Yes. Because I am now too busy dreaming of The SEX-HAWK! The INSEMNIRAPTOR! The EJACUVULCAN! The THRUST-PYTHON! The ... Am I really the only person thinking up designs for The ThunderCock-Eagle?

Yes. Because I am now too busy dreaming of The SEX-HAWK! The INSEMNIRAPTOR! The EJACUVULCAN! The THRUST-PYTHON!

The police will be all over these, especially in the UK where we're all about to be watched 24/7 from orbit.]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=216095#Comment_216095 2010-01-24T13:38:32-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 James Cunningham http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2925 This looks horribly unsafe. God, I want one. Personal flight units (jetpacks or something like this) are still top of the list of things I want from The Future. Not too sure about the ...
Not too sure about the functionality of lying down while flying, though. It seems like it would give a nasty crick in the neck after an hour or so. Looking at the initial design shows no head support at all, in fact, but that's bound to change if they manage to get to real-world testing.]]> Really cool personal flying device has lamest name ever ... http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7618&Focus=216140#Comment_216140 2010-01-24T20:55:27-08:00 2013-06-19T16:53:31-07:00 DavidLejeune http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4220 See, the whole area of personal flight is a bit strange to me. Unless they're made fully automatic, you cannot expect the majority of people to be able to fly one safely.I'm pretty sure that the ... See, the whole area of personal flight is a bit strange to me. Unless they're made fully automatic, you cannot expect the majority of people to be able to fly one safely.I'm pretty sure that the Puffin isn't intended to be a personal commuter vehicle. It seems pretty obvious that it's going to be for licensed couriers (and seriously, how awesome would it be to have one of these things land in your front yard and a guy gets out and hands you whatever it is you just got FedExed. I'd send MYSELF stuff and try to beat the dude home.) and short range aerial reconnaissance for the military.]]>