Drosel Posted February 10, 2021 Posted February 10, 2021 Humanity has long dreamed of floating freely in the air. And it seems that soon this dream will come true with the help of motorcycles. Yes, this most free transport will learn how to move through the air. It remains to literally wait a little. Although the first bikes have already made their flights. Shot from the movie Star Wars Remember how in the movie "Star Wars" heroes famously flew on speeders? It seemed incredible fantasy. In the film, speeders are widely used by Republic infantry. They made it possible to organize swift attacks on the troops of the Confderation. And after being wounded by a sniper, Captain Rex was evacuated from the combat zone with the help of a BARC speeder with a stretcher. So, all this is no longer fiction. Speeder from the Star Wars movie BMW Hover Ride Concept BMW Motorrad recently released an image of a concept called the Hover Ride Design Concept, a flying motorcycle that floats in the air. Moreover, the concept is made very realistic - it is based on the BMW R 1200 GS. It was already possible to start rejoicing and start saving money, just presented this concept at LEGO World in Copenhagen. From there, the futuristic car will travel across Denmark before heading to the BMW Group Research and Innovation Center Munich and the BMW Welt Museum. The same concept from BMW Yes, unfortunately, this is so far only a toy, designed to support the collaboration between BMW and LEGO. But I would not bother my readers with such nonsense, if not for one "but". At almost the same time, the Russian company Hoversurf successfully tested its Scorpion-3 prototype, which can accelerate to 50 km / h, climb to 10 m and fly on a single charge for up to 27 minutes. The Scorpion-3 concept is fundamentally different from the fantastic speeders and toys from BMW. It is essentially a large quadcopter capable of lifting a person. It's electric, which is why it has such a limited flight time. And outwardly, it still looks more like a "meat grinder" for the rider's feet than a bike. But, it was Hoversurf - the first in the world that lifted a person into the air on a flying bike (hoverbike) Scorpion-1 in 2016. Stop. But what about human flight on the E-Volo apparatus? Have we all seen this video? Yes, of course, the E-Volo company raised a man a little earlier on an 18-motor multicopter, but if we talk about a classic quadrocopter (with 4 propellers), then it was the Russian one. Hoversurf was the first. A man first took to the air on a Russian-made quadcopter-bike. And it is being developed by the young Russian company Hoversurf, which brought together specialists from the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Latvia and Israel. Still the first Scorpio The idea of such a vehicle is not new - in 2014, Malloy Aeronautics presented to the public the concept of an experimental heavy-duty multi-rotor Hoverbike copter capable of lifting an adult into the air. And just a year later, under the patronage of the US Department of Defense, the concept took part in the Le Bourget International Paris Air Show. It was obvious that the new development would be quickly picked up by global manufacturers and enthusiasts. And within a few months, the brave inventor Colin Furze was running around on an eccentric flying motorcycle (with an internal combustion engine) around his home. Russian Scorpio during trials But the Russian hoverbike is still the most advanced. The design speed is about 100 kilometers per hour, and the power reserve on batteries is 20-27 minutes. A hybrid version of the engine running on traditional fuel is under development, which allows to optimize the ratio of performance to take-off weight and to increase the operating time with one refueling to 1 hour. But for safety reasons, the guys themselves artificially limit the parameters of the flying bike. So, the first "Scorpion" could rise only 2 m above the ground, so that in the event of a rider's fall, he would be protected by motorcycle equipment. The third generation is already more advanced and is allowed to climb up to 10 m. Of course, there is still work to do. For example, I still don't understand why the Hoverbike still lacks propeller guards. But all these things can be corrected, because the tests are ongoing, and no one is talking about serial production yet. Despite the seeming prospects of this type of transport, the founder of Hoversurf, Alexander Atamanov, is still skeptical. “We proposed the concept of a flying motorcycle rather to attract attention - in fact, from the point of view of market prospects, the market for heavy-duty drones promises more. Nevertheless, we are ready to manufacture a motorcycle if we receive an order, but we see that so far people are cautious about such products are obviously intimidated.
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