The SoloTrek has many proposed uses including commuting and search-and-rescue. While it may be some time before those goals are met, the SoloTrek did pass its first hover tests late last year.
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After spending several years and millions of dollars in research and development, a Silicon Valley company did something in December that it claims made aviation history: Millennium Jet successfully tested a one-person flying machine — a jetpack, in the common parlance — that lifted the company's CEO to a height of about two feet, for 20 seconds.
The initial flight of the prototype SoloTrek XFV — a personal flying vehicle that looks like an upside-down egg beater — was meant to be unambitious, said Michael Moshier, Millennium Jet's CEO. "We have to force ourselves to walk before we can run," he said, explaining the flight's short duration and stepstool altitude, not to mention that the vehicle was kept tethered to "prevent any unplanned departures."
Mostly, the test flight — conducted in the relative privacy of the company's parking lot — was a proof-of-concept meant to woo potential investors.
Personal flying vehicles have long existed in the parallel universe of science fiction (as well as Disney movies), but starting a company to produce such an outr thing is not for the faint of heart.
"We're a small company and we got a little bit of money from the government a year ago," Moshier said, but "we should be moving a lot faster than we are. How fast we're going is a function of our ability to raise investor money, and frankly that's been tough. Our burn rate here is $150,000 a month, and we need to hire more people."
The SoloTrek is about 8-feet-tall and weighs more than 300 pounds, but production models are certain to be smaller and lighter, Moshier said.
When it's fully developed, the SoloTrek would fly at speeds up to 80 mph. The vehicle would run on gasoline and it might go 120 miles without refueling. To prevent the odd gust from crashing you into a tree, the vehicle comes equipped with a sophisticated gyroscopic stabilizing system, which Moshier said is one of the toughest parts of the vehicle to develop.
"We're trying to make a system that's so smart that it will accommodate all those variables," Moshier said. "We really want it so that the pilot just steers and goes."
The company has received more than $5 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, the agency credited with inventing the Internet) to develop a military version of the SoloTrek, which Moshier said would be helpful for soldiers who want to get into a tight spot quickly.
Aside from the Defense Department, city fire and rescue crews might also find a use for such vehicles, Moshier said.
And then, of course, there are all those regular people who want a flying car — and there is no shortage of those people, the CEO said.
But speaking to the Associated Press, Paul Saffo, technology forecaster and director of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, said he didn't think the flying vehicle was suitable for mass conveyance. "The moment you move through three dimensions, that takes special skills," Saffo said. "This is a specialty for military, police and less obvious things — like power-line inspection."
Moshier dismissed such concerns. "Somebody probably had that same discussion when automobiles came out," he said.
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