MikroKopter - HexaKopter (http://vimeo.com/6194911)

Dude - that's wild - and it must run on battery - amazing!

S~

Gunny

Look here.

http://www.rctoys.com/private/videos.html (http://www.rctoys.com/private/videos.html)

http://www.draganfly.com/uav-helicopter/draganflyer-x6/gallery/videos/ (http://www.draganfly.com/uav-helicopter/draganflyer-x6/gallery/videos/)

I could sure use that for Scouting Deer, and Babes at the pool! 8)

That's somewhat similar to what I design, build and fly at work - but much smaller and simpler.

http://www.jobyenergy.com/ (http://www.jobyenergy.com/)

Wow! That's thinking and designing out of the box for sure....  I'm kind of speechless,  I'll be thinking about that all day....

Later - Thanks for sharing, Eco - amazing

Gunny

You must have a cool job Eco!

I read about the concept of kite wind turbines a few years ago... interesting to see someone's actually making them!

Yeah, Gunny, runs on lithium ion.  The batteries typically only last about 15 minutes at a time though.  My older brother does video production and is putting together a three prop version to use as a mobile camera platform--kind of a much cheaper way to do swooping aerial shots vs. hiring a helicopter.  With GPS and solid-state gyros, you can pre-program it's flight path... as well as control it by looking through goggles that are linked to the on-board camera.

15 minute mission duration - that's pretty heavy.  I knew there would have to be a cost :)

I can see however, where it would be great in the film industry. 

S~

Gunny

That's pretty cool Eco, but how does it get the energy back to the ground?

Radio/Microwave/etc.

I'm also thinking, it will have to have a communicator, for Aircraft to avoid, and ATC to route around it.

As for the other thing mentioned first.

I can see a bunch of UFO fakes coming from that thing.

really cool stuff :)

Tonight I flew a demo flight with our small prototype "Mercury 7" for abc7news

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/business&id=7410502 (http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/business&id=7410502)

There's some raw footage of an earlier aerobatic demo flight on our website ("March 2010"): http://www.jobyenergy.com/tech/visit (http://www.jobyenergy.com/tech/visit)

Youll get a good example of how our vehicles can fly in the VTOL regime much like the quad/hexaktopter types AND transition to forward flight. Oh and try watching on full screen to keep it from being too tiny.

Great stuff Eco, It's noisy hehehe and fly real well.  impressive.

Wow!  Thanks, that is soo cool.  When I first looked at the video, I saw you and thought "He's not actually going to fly that box, is he?".....

Looks like, you just angle it so the vertical panels become airfoils and zoom.....

Is it hard to fly?

S!

Gunny