It's a 'flying motorbike'! Impressive homemade drone takes off

Dream comes true: Zhao Deli, 40, took off with his homemade drone.

A homemade 'flying motorcycle' has taken to the skies, with its inventor on board.
Zhao Deli, 40, was lifted into the air by eight propellers in Tangxia town, Dongguan city, south China's Guangdong province.
Mr Zhao designed and built the drone himself and - dressed in an all-black protective suit - embarked on the extraordinary flight test on Monday. 

The drone's propellers are affixed to a central frame which is designed to be as lightweight as possible.
The aircraft has a motor installed under the seat, which provides the power for the drone while the rider perches at the top.
Before Monday's flight, the amateur inventor had put the unusual aircraft under unmanned tests for 1,559 times in the space of two years.

With the eight propellers stirring the air and the motor roaring, Mr Zhao's flying vehicle successfully carried him into the air.
After a safe landing onto the ground, the excited Mr Zhao told a reporter from Guangzhou Daily: 'It was like riding a motorbike in the sky.
'My dream has come true after this 1560th flight test.'

A video on Chinese news site Sohu shows the man leaning forward with his hands on a control panel at the front of his contraption.
Seconds later, all eight propellers start to spin and lift Mr Zhao into the air.
The man-carrying quadcopter levitates in the sky and lands safely on the ground.
He has named the drone 'Jin Dou Yun' or 'Magical Cloud' - a flying cloud ridden by China's very own fictional superhero, Monkey King.

Mr Zhao claimed the flying bike could carry a load of between 110 and 220 pounds (50 and 100 kilograms).
Its maximum takeoff weight of 564 pounds (256 kilograms), top speed of 44 mph (70 km/h) and battery life of 30 minutes make it a market leader, said Mr Zhao.
Mr Zhao was born in a village in south China's Hunan Province. Like most boys, he has always dreamt of flying in the sky one day.
He aced in science subjects at school and enjoyed fixing electrical appliances at home.

In 2008, Mr Zhao set up a company to sell the drones he invented himself. By then he had invented five drone models, including a petrol drone.
Two years ago, Mr Zhao read about a hovering surfboard in Canada, and that was where he got the inspiration for the 'flying motorbike'.
Despite his enthusiasm, Mr Zhao's road to success was by no means smooth.

He experienced countless failures while trying to make the unmanned aircraft airbourne during the 1,559 flight tests; he even had to sell his house and borrow money from friends in order to fund his project, it is reported.
The inventor was ecstatic after Monday's flight.
He said he hoped to fly across China's Yellow River on the aircraft.
He also planned to modify the 'flying motorbike' before launching it as a commercial product on the market.

Gravity human flying suit

Commercial 1000 horsepower Gravity human flying suit 

The first Gravity human flying suit was sold for 300,000 euros. Current versions of the suit sell for $440,000.

They will add 3D printed wings for more efficient and faster flight.
They will add AR displays.
They will create an electric battery version.

It has set a speed record of 32 miles per hour. It has an altitude limit of 12,000 feet. Inventor Richard Browning hovers only a few meters above the ground when using it, for safety reasons.
They plan to develop human flight races.

The suit uses four liters of fuel a minute in the hover (position) so you can fly for three or four minutes quite easily. They have got another version that will fly for about nine minutes. So the range of the suits is currently about 2-5 miles.
The suit weighs 59 pounds.

Rossy's jet-powered wing

Yves Rossy developed and built a wing-suit system comprising a backpack equipped with semi-rigid aeroplane-type carbon-fiber wings—with a span of about 2.4 meters (7.9 ft)—powered by four Jetcat P400 jet engines, modified from large kerosene-fueled model aircraft engines. Rossy deploys from an airplane or helicopter.

 
 Rossy's jet-powered wing

His jetpack had a top speed of 189 mph but was enhanced with wind and other factors.
Rossy’s current jet pack has a top speed of more than 150 knots (172 mph), uses a carbon-fiber wing with four miniature jet engines and his own body as control surfaces.

Titans, Star Trek Discovery, Aquaman and various other trailers

There were various other trailers from Comic con like Titans, Aquaman, Dr Who and more.
Star Trek Discovery Season 2 will have Captain Pike and Spock.

Russia cancels stealth Su-57 but will make improved Su-35

Russia is cancelling the Su-57 (aka T-50) stealth fighter.
They built 11 planes in early production over the past 10 years. Each taking the integration of advanced stealth, electronics, engine and integration technologies one step further.

Russia flew the Su-57 in Syria but it had engine troubles and the stealth is inferior.

Most of the first five prototypes developed severe structural problems, engine breakdowns and cockpit glazing problems. India had agreed to co-finance the T-50, but dropped out because the T-50’s engines were unreliable, inadequate radar and badly engineered stealth.

Russia will apply the stealth technology and other advancements for an improved version of the SU-35.

The future of personal aviation? Startup unveils ‘safe & affordable flying car’

A Silicon Valley startup has unveiled an all-electric flying vehicle that can travel up to 25 miles at a speed of 62 mph. Known as the BlackFly, the aero car requires no special skills to operate and no formal licensing in the US. 

 

The futuristic-looking personal aviation vehicle designed purely for consumer needs was developed at the Silicon Valley-based Opener, by a team led by Canadian entrepreneur Marcus Leng.
Leng made the first flight of a “proof-of-concept vehicle” in his front yard in Warkworth, Ontario, Canada back in 2011, before relocating his company to California to pursue his dream of creating the “world’s first ultralight all-electric fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.”

Seven years on, the startup has developed a fully functional dual-wing, eight-rotor craft which has been tested in the air more than 1,400 times, covering a distance of more than 12,000 miles. BlackFly is even packed with “full amphibious capabilities” and can ideally take off from any small patch of grass.



Capable of covering distances of up to 25 miles at a speed of 62 mph, the zero-emission vehicle comes with a lot of high tech features as well as a supercharging mode to repower the flying machine in less than 30 mins.

While the developer claims the BlackFly is simple to master and requires no formal licensing in the States, operating the VTOL will require captains to complete the FAA Private Pilot written examination and pass vehicle familiarization and operator training. While the cost of the unit has not yet been made public, the developer claims the price will be “competitive.”

“OPENER is re-energizing the art of flight with a safe and affordable flying vehicle that can free its operators from the everyday restrictions of ground transportation,” said Leng. “We will offer competitive pricing in an endeavor to democratize three-dimensional personal transportation."
Eventually, the startup wants to create a rural/urban commuting network which would allow the vehicles to recharge when traveling long distances using renewable energy sources
“The future of Aviation begins today,” said Alan Eustace, Director at Opener and former Senior Vice President of Knowledge at Google. “The dream of flight, which was so difficult and expensive to obtain, will soon be within the reach of millions. Opener is putting the fun back into flying and opening up a new world of possibilities.”

Robot dog can run, jump and climb in MIT's vision of the future

Seeing the Cheetah 3 robot from MIT leap, gallop and climb a staircase littered with debris is almost enough to make a person prepare to welcome our new animatronic overlords.

Footage of the experiments shows researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) putting the Labrador-sized mechanical beast through its paces, making it run on a treadmill and climb cluttered steps while being periodically pulled sharply from behind with a leash.

The four-legged robot was tested without cameras or any external sensors, making the machine essentially blind. Designer Sangbae Kim believes that such experiments are essential to finding out what the robot is capable of without relying too much on vision.

“If humans close our eyes and make a step, we have a mental model for where the ground might be, and can prepare for it. But we also rely on the feel of touch of the ground,” Kim explained to MIT News. “We are sort of doing the same thing by combining multiple [sources of] information to determine the transition time.”



The robot’s incredible balance can be credited to two new pieces of code, a contact detection algorithm and a model-predictive control algorithm which help the machine determine how to react to different types of terrain. “It’s thanks to that predictive control that can apply the right forces on the ground, combined with this contact transition algorithm that makes each contact very quick and secure,” Kim said.

In 2015, footage of the Cheetah 2 robot showed the MIT-developed robot jumping over small obstacles with a 90 percent success rate. The previous incarnation of the robot relied on a visual system that used reflections from a laser to map terrain.

The Cheetah is somewhat reminiscent of the SpotMini, another dog-like robot developed by Boston Dynamics. The company hopes to make the robot available commercially in 2019.

New drone Yaoying-2 makes maiden flight

A Chinese home-grown strike drone made its maiden flight on Tuesday, according to its developer, state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

The Yaoying-2 can carry out civilian tasks such as surveying and mapping, but also has military uses, including counterterrorism operations, Avic said on Thursday.

Along with other strike drones exported by China – such as the Rainbow series and Wing Loong – the company is eyeing the international market for its unmanned aerial vehicle, which it calls the “Air Sniper”.

Tuesday’s flight left from Anshun Huangguoshu Airport in southwestern Guizhou province, Avic said, without giving further details.

 

The six-metre drone can fly at speeds of up to 230km/h at an altitude of 7,500 metres, which is in the middle to high range compared with its peers. It can stay in the air for 16 hours, with controllers up to 200km away, according to the developer.

The drone is based on the Yaoying-1, which was developed by the same company in 2011 for civilian uses such as surveying and mapping.

The new model can provide real-time images and monitor information for use in scenarios such as firefighting, as well as land resource surveys, according to the company.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which developed the Rainbow series, put the value of export deals for such strike drones at around US$700 million, without elaborating.

The state-owned company made the estimate in a document submitted for a Chinese science award early this year. Its Rainbow 4 is sold for US$4 million, and such drones have been used by overseas buyers for counterterrorism and border inspection missions, according to the document.

DARPA’s future ground vehicle will not fly but will not need roads

DARPA GXV-T wants future combat vehicles that could traverse up to 95 percent of off-road terrain, including slopes and various elevations. Capabilities include revolutionary wheel-to-track and suspension technologies that would enable access and faster travel both on- and off-road, compared to existing ground vehicles.

Next generation off-roading would mean that US military vehicles can avoid roads that have IED (Improvised Explosive Devices). By driving anywhere, it would tougher for enemy forces to bomb US vehicles. The new vehicles would then be able to use less armor.



* Reconfigurable Wheel-Track (RWT)
Wheels permit fast travel on hard surfaces while tracks perform better on soft surfaces. A team from Carnegie Mellon University National Robotics Engineering Center (CMU NREC) demonstrated shape-shifting wheel-track mechanisms that transition from a round wheel to a triangular track and back again while the vehicle is on the move, for instant improvements to tactical mobility and maneuverability on diverse terrains.

*Electric In-hub Motor
Putting motors directly inside the wheels offers numerous potential benefits for combat vehicles, such as heightened acceleration and maneuverability with optimal torque, traction, power, and speed over rough or smooth terrain. In an earlier demonstration, QinetiQ demonstrated a unique approach, incorporating three gear stages and a complex thermal management design into a system small enough to fit a standard military 20-inch rim.

* Multi-mode Extreme Travel Suspension (METS)
Pratt & Miller’s METS system aims to enable high-speed travel over rough terrain while keeping the vehicle upright and minimizing occupant discomfort. The vehicle demonstrator incorporates standard military 20-inch wheels, advanced short-travel suspension of four-to-six inches, and a novel high-travel suspension that extends up to six feet – 42 inches upward and 30 inches downward. The demonstration in May showed off its ability to tackle steep slopes and grades by actively and independently adjusting the hydraulic suspension on each wheel of the vehicle.