A flying bike had a successful first flight. The 220 pound bicycle was the joint effort of Technodat, Evektor, and Duratec companies in Prague, Czech Republic.
With a dummy in the seat, the bike rose off the ground and glided around the room for several minutes. Six fans, placed horizontally, allow the bike to hover several feet above the floor. Amazingly, it remained fairly steady as flew around the room.
The test flight was radio controlled , as they chose to use a dummy for the first flight. As reported by Yahoo, The flying bicycle runs on six propellers , each powered by a separate battery. At this point the bicycle can only fly for five minutes at a time.
The flying bike is quite heavy, and has a larger profile due to the large propellers. Now that the developers have proven that the bike can fly, they will begin streamlining the components.
Ales Kobylik, who helped develop the flying bicycle, explains that money did not motivate the invention:
“Our main motivation in working on the project was neither profit nor commercial interest, but the fulfillment of our boyish dreams.”
The developers hope to have a newer version completed by the end of the year. The new version will be better suited to carry a human rider. As reported by CNet , one of the challenges will be adding power without increasing the weight of the bike.
As explained by one of the developers, Milan Ducherk, the capacity of batteries continues to increase:
“Capacity of batteries doubles about every 10 years, we can expect that in the future the capacity would be enough for the bike to be used for sports, tourism or similar things.”
As newer technology becomes available, the flying bike may eventually replace bicycles and motorcycles. The possibilities are endless.
[Image via Flickr ]