This is amazing,<p>I would like to narrate a story which happened with me, I come from low financial background. I have always been to education institutions where people are generally from around my background.<p>During my pre-university college(10th grade + 2 years, In India) there was a guy who probably couldn't afford engineering. His dad used to work at a automobile mechanical shop. The guy bought a absolute dead discarded engine and built a small airplane with it. The airplane didn't do much. It would just moved around, struggle to take off, loose balance and fall over on the sides. But he was forced to learn so many things on the way. As his classmates we took huge pride in sometimes going to his home and helping him out.<p>Very soon HAL(Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) took note of it, and sponsored his mechanical engineering. He is doing fine now. Generally when someone does something like this, its not for building an actual airplane, but just out of desperation to do something in life. The product is just a way to express what the person wants.<p>This was around 2002, I hope I could show you the photo graphs. I don't think they were taken at that time. Affording a camera was a pipe dream then. But I remember there was a small article somewhere in the news paper back then, that's how HAL noticed it.
> Shu managed to hover for 10 seconds at about 1 meter<p>He would have probably done better if he had read a detailed article on the Wright brothers first. Successful flight is a matter of control, and eight engines do not compound well with a lack of background in electrical engineering.
Real men apparently put their mid section in the plane of rotation of not one but <i>eight</i> propellers without so much as a piece of sheet metal inbetween. He must trust the manufacturers of those props and his welding pretty good. Awesome. But very very scary.
This is an example of grassroots innovation, <i>jugaad</i> is the Hindi word for it (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad</a>). Countless millions are spent each year on "how to foster innovation" etc., most of which is BS. As seen here it only takes a hacker that doesn't know that what everyone else believes, i.e. what s/he is building is impossible/very hard.<p>EDIT: Most comments here are missing the main point, he <i>doesn't care</i> if the center of gravity is high or if the thing is pretty much uncontrollable or that you can't mass produce these or that it has been done before. He just BUILT IT and as far as his goals are concerned he is extremely successful, i.e. the thing gets off the ground. That, to me, is the quintessential hacker spirit.
I remember the Nike ads with the slogan "just do it." This strikes me like that sort of attitude. That being said, I presume he either understands the risks (probably the most fearsome is the shrapnel cloud should one of the engines break free or a propellor lose integrity.) and does it anyway. And I admire folks who are willing to do things even though it may shorten their lives (helicopter skiing always struck me as an example of this).<p>That being said, I'm suprised he didn't go with a Quadracopter type design. Probably not enough lift but even a hexacopter might be easier. And the software to control them is already available on an Arduinio.
Ha ha, really cool. These designs with man-on-top are somewhat unstable though due to the high center of gravity. That's the main concern with Chris Malloy's awesome Hoverbike. However, he does fly the thing, so if you want to go for it, you can do it.<p><a href="http://www.hover-bike.com/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.hover-bike.com/index.html</a><p><a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20071088-1/will-flying-motorcycle-soon-be-a-reality/" rel="nofollow">http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20071088-1/will-flying-m...</a>
Who cares how viable it is? The fact that he built it, and it sorta works, is awesome.<p>If you said this came out of DARPA instead of some guy in China, I doubt you'd get the same critical comments.
I'm sure he verified a thousand times the blades are secured, but just looking at the picture gives me chills of one of them coming apart, and the scene captured in "Many faces of death".
There is a video linked here in one of the comments and after having watched it I'm left amazed by the fact that those involved still have all their limbs.
I can't imagine very much more questionable than a flying machine built around two-stroke motorcycle engines. He probably realizes this, though, and has no illusions about its suitability to 'real world' use.