The Race For Personal Flight Vehicles

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Another contestant has entered the race for personal flight vehicles to allow a person to travel by hovering at speed. So far, two companies are in the race – Hungarian research institute Bay Zoltan Nonprofit Ltd with the Flike, and UK firm Malloy Aeronautics’ Hoverbike.

Into this exciting and hectic race entered a Dutch engineer called Thorstin Crijns who works at an unmanned aerial systems (UAV) company in the Netherlands has built a drone large enough to carry a man, and after a lot of planning and calculation using smaller prototypes, he has succeeded in building a personal flight vehicle that looks like a large civilian drone, only it comes with 16 rotors and a place for a human to sit on the centre of it.

The vehicle frame is made from lightweight aluminium. In total, including all components, it weighs 110lbs (50kg) and can support a payload of 132lbs, so its total weight is 243lbs. To support that weight, the vehicle features 16 separate engines.

Though none of the hovercrafts are currently ready to be commercialized, it won’t be long until such vehicles are put to both civil and military use, bringing the platform of battle, technology and day-to-day human lives up into the air.