Now THIS is personal flight

[unixronin]

You're looking at a strap-on rigid "stealth wing" made of graphite fiber, developed by German company ESG, and slated to be used by elite special forces in addition to a parachute.  Instead of a HALO insertion within a few miles of the target, an infiltration team equipped with the mono-wing could be dropped by a high-altitude transport aircraft as far as 120 miles from their target, gliding to the target area at 220mph carrying up to 200lb of equipment and weapons before opening a parachute for the final landing.  The mono-wing is completely silent, and extremely difficult to detect on radar.

ESG is even considering powered versions that could extend the range still further.  They're talking small turbojets, but for daytime use, I have to wonder how much thrust you could get from a ducted fan powered by photovoltaic panels on the upper surface of the wing.  How about strapping on a wing to fly to the office?  If this tech reaches the public sector, I can see streamlined racing wings, high-aspect-ratio soaring wings, maybe relay races of winged athletes, or a new generation of team games played a thousand feet in the air.  Last year you toured the Grand Canyon by boat; maybe five years from now, you'll be able to tour it from the air, under your own personal set of wings.

The one question I have is whether there's a way to land one of these things without using a parachute.  Logic says you should be able to pull up just above the ground and progressively increase your angle of attack, bleeding off speed until you stall, but the article doesn't mention what the mono-wing's stalling speed is.  Perhaps a more lightly-loaded civilian version with wider span and less sweep might stall at a low enough speed to let you land at a run.

Linkage from koyote

Comments

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

I saw a video of a guy who was wearing a "wingsuit" (the kind with membranes between the arms and legs, and between the legs) and had strapped a couple of small jet engines on his lower legs. He jumped off a balloon that was at high altitude and went for a flight. When he reached the ground, he stated that he had achieved level flight for a short time. With this thing, level flight would probably be no problem.

Life imitating 007

[captoblivion.livejournal.com]

Didn't we see three of these (or some similar things) in the opening credits of "Die Another Day"? It must be great to be Bond.

Re: Life imitating 007

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I don't know; neither I nor cymrullewes have seen that one yet.

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

I think they've beaten the 'theoretical' limits for solar cells. The Japanese did 36 percent but I think a nanotech company claimed far higher, like 50 percent. I still am not sure it would work well as there is probably not enough surface area.

They want to seriously reduce weight and a small turbojet would give the most bang for the fuel and weight until we have hyper efficient low weight fuel cells and either some nanotech motor solution or an amorphous iron one.

Curious but I can't recall hearing anything about amorphous iron transformers or motors. Those were supposed to save billions in electricity.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

True; possibly something like a cruise-missile powerplant, or something even smaller. Cruise missiles have led to great strides in the efficiency and power-to-weight output of very small turbojets.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

looks like it could be way fun to own and play with!