Guarddog

Wired.com- "The engineers at NASA have combined every one of our geeky transportation dreams into a single little vehicle called the Puffin. It takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane. It can cruise at 140 mph and, with a boost mode, hit about twice that. Oh — and it’s electric....

No word on when the Puffin will make its first manned flight, though NASA plans to finish a one-third size demonstrator by March and see how well it transitions from cruising to hovering. But it’s safe to say that if this bird flies — and that’s a very big if — we’ll no longer be dreaming of having our own jetpack."

Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/01...#ixzz0hwMBIeWC

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rhpPhvWvLgk&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rhpPhvWvLgk&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

The future could get pretty awesome!

Plus there's this...

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0aXJcfxvI8Y&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0aXJcfxvI8Y&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

NORML54601

Puffin? How manly.

Guarddog

I bet you'd rather have a long phallic vehicle called the Sky Penetrator that runs on semen and farts...

NORML54601

I bet it would intimidate the Chinese.

crazyronin

A VTOL AIRCRAFT IS NOT A HOVERCRAFT!

Cheato

Don't be stupid. The Chinese don't need vehicles to fly. And they have impenetrable skin.

VinVega

Mrs. Danger

I like the idea of a farting airplane.

Mrs. Danger

Where do you keep the fuel in that thing, anyway?

Guarddog

It's electric that's one reason it's incredible, so power is stored in batteries.

islandclaws

I'm anticipating the eventual "NASA engineer mangled in Puffin accident" headlines. This thing looks awfully dangerous for consumer use - not that anyone will really be able to afford one.

rexinnih

This thread already made me laugh.

Guarddog

It'd be interesting if they tried to use it for military but it seems like they are targeting rich people considering they have the business jet version.

cpgator

I think every company currently working on a personal flying craft are targeting rich people.

Fist of Doom

There are cheaper alternatives...

cpgator

He doesn't seem like he is enjoying it... They need to work on their ad campaign.

OldDude

Until a model flies, it is a CGI cartoon show.

IF it flies, they can tell us about weight, payload, range, stuff like that.

I would add that it looks complex. I can understand why they wouldn't want to call it a "Personal Osprey" but it looks related.

Mordred

I've gotta say those would go a long way towards reducing noise pollution in large cities. That thing is quiet!

edstein

Have you seen the people at the DMV? I don't want them driving cars much less something like this.

Deep_lurk

The word "hovercraft" does not mean what you think it means.

Rockmjd23

It's manlier than this revolutionary vehicle:

Guarddog

Nasa's Personal Craft That Hovers* I apologize for the thread title if it is really that hard to bear my inappropriate categorization...it is still freaking awesome regardless... and it still hovers...

"In the current state of battery tech the Puffin is no more than a curiosity. Moore and his colleagues hope to have a scaled-down prototype flying within months, and have suggested that military customers might like the design as it stands - it would be no noisier "than a conversation", apparently, and having no exhausts would boast low infrared signatures....here's hope for aspiring electric hover-pod pilots yet. Moore believes that battery energy densities could triple in coming years, which would make Puffin-style craft much more useful" (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01...pod/page2.html).

Mrs. Danger

For your future reference, a hovercraft hovers and glides, few inches above the surface. That's all it does. You can't go sailing over buildings in it.

James Bond never did a daring escape in one, either.

Troy Stiffler

Some dude crashed his plane a couple hundred yards from my shop the other day. Aviation is a tricky thing. It's for anal-retentive perfectionists only. If you're not one, I wouldn't trust to fly with you. It's crazy how the slightest of bit of error in avionics can kill you.

At least it's electric. So you're not flying around with a big gas tank.

If this thing does become a reality, I don't think I'd want to see the 'general public' flying around. It needs to be idiot-proofed first.

TomOpus

Well...