Of course he's just doing it to impress the girls, but he gets big props for building the flying machine himself, and having the guts to try it out personally.

Soaring and gliding at up to 185mph, Rossy may have the ultimate view up in the sky ... but he can't enjoy it - "I am so concentrated, I don't really enjoy the view".

He plans to cross the English Channel in his wings when they are further developed.

Filed under: personal flight, jet, and rocket

The GEN H-4 Personal helicopter brings the old sci-fi idea of a individualized jetpack to life.

We look forward to testing on May 25th.

Amazingly enough, even before this test flight, the helicopter is on sale for the relatively modest (by aviation standards) price of $58,250. They have sold six units, two here in the USA.

With a top speed of 31mph, I'm not sure how useful this thing is, but I salute the brave and slightly masochistic people who decide to purchase it.

Filed under: helicopter, personal, and flight

Do you hate rapid transit, simply because it's uncomfortable? Do you not relish sharing your day with people squashed into a tiny tube?

Then personal rapid transit (PRT) might be just the ticket for you to re-think public transit. It consists of car-like vehicles, electronically guided to their destinations by a computerized routing system. Like rapid transit, you don't need to drive, you can surf the web or look out the window. And like a car you have your own dedicated vehicle to speed you to your destination.

It sounds like a pretty interesting idea, albeit not a particularly cost-effective one. After all, carrying capacity of such a system has to be about the same as a public road. But the cars are electric and therefore very efficient and non-polluting (at least at the site).

This story is about a plan in Barcelona, Spain. The secondary link mentions the new implementation in Heathrow Terminal 5.

Filed under: transit, personal transit, and pod