Flying Bicycle Achieves Liftoff in Prague

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Flying Bicycle Achieves Liftoff in Prague

Are Flying Bikes the Solution to Road Traffic?

By Jon M. Chang
ABC News
June 13, 2013

You don't have to rent "E.T." to watch a bike soar
through the air.

Engineers in the Czech Republic have successfully tested
their flying bicycle project, F-bike. Instead of an
adorable alien, a life-sized dummy sat on the bike seat
while the crew used a remote control to pilot the bike
around the PVA Expo Center in Prague.

The bicycle was able to lift off, hover, steer and land
during its five-minute flight.

F-bike is a joint effort among several tech companies,
but is spearheaded by Technodat. When the project first
started in the fall of 2011, it was conceived as a high-
tech electric bicycle without any flying capability. But
the "e-bike" idea was too mundane to be worthy of
pursuit, according to F-bike's website.

Michal Cizek/AFP/Getty Images

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Instead, they drew inspiration from the flying machines
found in the novels of Jules Verne and Czech author
Jaroslav Foglar. Unlike those fictional vehicles,
however, F-bike flies not with wings but with six
motorized propellers attached to the bike's frame: two
propellers in the front, two in the back, and one on each
side of the seat.

Technodat CEO Ales Kobylik sees several more unmanned
tests in F-bike's future. Although they are planning on
testing the bicycle with an actual human rider, no
timetable has been set.

Continues at:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/flying-bicycle-achieves-liftoff-prague/story?id=19392528

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj

[wien9al...@gmail.com]

> Flying Bicycle Achieves Liftoff in Prague

..... Congratulations! Next I'd like to read about somebody up there comfortably pedalling, sitting in an armchair, as the only power source. Probably it can't be done, but here's hoping!