http://www.act-composites.com/jetman.htm
:surprised
Me want!!
Order of Kilopi
http://www.act-composites.com/jetman.htm
:surprised
Me want!!
Order of Kilopi
So do I
That looks incredible - I wonder what the glide ratio is.
Honored Member
Hopefully more than the space shuttle, AKA "The Flying Brick".Originally Posted by cjl
So do I
That looks incredible - I wonder what the glide ratio is.
BTW, I caught a video of this while surfing channels a few days back. My initial thought: "I sure hope he knows his glide path versus the distance to the landing point."
The ultimate "gliding human" will be the one who masters this to the point where no parachute is required to land successfully.
Established Member
Quite an experience, what?
The ultimate "gliding human" will be the one who masters this to the point where no parachute is required to land successfully.
Lining up for final would be a cheek clenching moment methinks.
Order of Dr. Kilopi
yea like "hey we just invented this shark suit and we want you to try it"
Established Member
Nice Wings there.
Established Member
That is awesome!
I want one!
Seems you could wear a parachute and just not deploy it on landing. The way, if you run into trouble you can still "bail". Also, on the glide path thoughts, doesn't he have little boosters in the wings? It looked that way to me anyway. Granted they don't have much, but it's something.
So fun, I would be willing to test it...it's actually the taking off part (in phase two of their project) that would worry me more. Something about potentially running into the ground due to overdoing the thrust in the first few seconds of flight...wierd. I know. That's just how I am I guess.
Order of Kilopi
Hey - it does have several RC jet engines on it - how did I miss that the first time? Those appear to be in the 30-40lb class, so quite decent thrust in clusters of 2 or 4. That could be quite fun.
Established Member
Brings new meaning to the old Henny Youngman one-liner (I Just flew in from Pittsburgh...and boy, are my arms tired!).
Established Member
I don't think it would be wise to give this man life insurance.
Order of Dr. Kilopi
no giving. but selling
Established Member
Yeah....BOTH sets of cheeks, at that.... Keep in mind he'd have to have enough speed to flare and kill his vertical velocity - but that sill means he has to somehow burn off the rest of the energy from the speed at touchdown. Talk about no margin for error.
Order of Kilopi
By an interesting co-incidence, I had a similar conversation with my younger brother earlier today.yea like "hey we just invented this shark suit and we want you to try it"
HIM: I want to invent a bug spray that will cause all bees within three inches of my person to fly away.
ME: How will you test it?
HIM: I'll jump into a cage full of angry bees.
ME: Suppose it doesn't work...
Established Member
At least the guy wearing the JetCat wings has a 'chute...
Established Member
Not much? What was I thinking? at the end of the video it says climb rate is 1000ft/min. Wow!
Landing...hmm. If you don't want to land on your feet, what if you positioned one of those skinny canoe trailers on the runway to "set down" on and roll away? Have fun stopping, but at least you don't hit the ground. Maybe add a third wheel and a bike caliper brake somewhere. Of course, if you don't make the runway...
Established Member
Did you ever see the NASA "lifting-body" crash at the beginning of the $6 Million Man? THAT's what would happen to the guy if he didn't make the runway....
In short: It wouldn't be pretty.
Established Member
And no chance of a "Go Around".........
Established Member
In Jump School I learned the difference between a PLF and a PFL (Parachute Landing Fall, and Pretty (fill in the blank) Landing).
The correct technique for a PLF is to make a curve of your body and land on the balls of the feet then roll across the outside of your legs onto your back - letting the curve absorb the impact.
A PFL is generally of the feet-knees-face variety.
-- all of this is to say, that should this guy go for a final WITHOUT using his 'chute... well I'd hate to see what happened if his 'landing gear' collapsed and he ended up in a powered PFL.
TumbleTHUMPScraaaaaaaaape!
Order of Kilopi
Could always automate that. As the engines die, the chute kicks in at a precalculated velocity to meet the landing criteria.
Order of Kilopi
With no power assist I'm sure it is a different ball of wax; but at least some of the wingsuit manufacturers and flyers predict a flareable wingsuit within a decade. A couple of the people I jump with have gotten their descent rate down in the 50's (MPH). People that do it on a daily basis are probably getting even slower. They of course trade some of that for forward speed, so regardless of how slow they are approaching Earth, flare capability is a must.
I don't know at what point a jumpsuit with lots of fabric becomes a bodychute, in the same way this guy has an attachment that has turned him into a bodyairplane; but definitions aside, I think we will have landable wingsuits before too long.
Plenty of more experienced skydivers are now jumping canopies of less than 100' square. Not the norm to be sure, but very common for the top 15 or 20% of the hottest divers at the bigger DZ's to be landing them. And the most adventureous handful worldwide are now landing stuff only 50' square. The most exotic wingsuits have to be approaching that size. So it's really just a matter of getting more control of more of the surface area.
If you are interested in some wild stuff, go to skydivingmovies.com for some of the folks who are really pushing the envelope. There is video of people flying wingsuits down the side of a mountain, just 20' of clerarance and going incredibly fast. The coolest perspective is from somebody with a camera on the hill shooting people as the scream by. Imagine skiing on a slope and having a human fly by doing 80 MPH.
Order of Kilopi
I'm guessing the word isn't "fouled-up", but something similar. I had a textbook that used "fouled" as the "f" in "snafu".In Jump School I learned the difference between a PLF and a PFL (Parachute Landing Fall, and Pretty (fill in the blank) Landing).
Order of Kilopi
I wonder if that's close enough for a ground effect to help with lift,
__________________________________________________
Reductionist and proud of it.
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. Benjamin Franklin
Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails. Clarence Darrow
A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read. Mark Twain
Established Member
Only if he lowered the flaps in his "Long Johns"
Order of Kilopi
For an object as small as a human, moving that slow, my guess is you'd have to be a lot closer. Too close for comfort, even for those maniacs.Only if he lowered the flaps in his "Long Johns"
Established Member
speed 120-300km/h
Imagine hitting a bird...
Order of Kilopi
Would probably look a bit like this.
__________________________________________________
Reductionist and proud of it.
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. Benjamin Franklin
Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails. Clarence Darrow
A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read. Mark Twain
Established Member
I don't think I've seen the film, but my imagination is quite active.
Order of Kilopi
Just ask Fabio.speed 120-300km/h
Imagine hitting a bird...
STARGAZING: All I see are the lights of a billion places I'll never go. --Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary
Honored Member
Here you go. It's at about 2:30.
Established Member
WOW!
1) I would not want to test land like that using my body as landing gear.
2) Not even for $6 million.
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