“Alright, the army wants a single-man aircraft that an infantryman can learn to fly in 20 minutes. Any ideas?”
“Well, I saw this Wile E. Coyote cartoon last night…”
“Great! Whatever he did, do exactly that. He knows what he’s doing- It says “genius” on his business card, after all.”
@LazyRyder
Yeah, the mission makes sense, but the vehicle itself is a disaster. It’s bigger, noisier, harder to operate, and less efficient than a Jeep, with the added “bonus” of a huge potential for horrific injury and/or death to the pilot and bystanders. The other flying platforms were a lot less crazy:
@Flying Pancake
If I’m not mistaken, these flying platforms were envisioned as a light recon vehicle similar to the jeep that wouldn’t have to worry about minefields or rivers and other barriers. The problem was that even without the ability to fly jeeps were still rugged and useful in many situations whereas these things were temperamental and overly specialized.
I have no idea how anyone was able to look at that thing and honestly think it was a good idea. Hats off to the test pilot(s), though.
I honestly want to know how the pre-flight briefing went.
“So what happens if I fall off?”
“Well, there’s a giant spinning blade right underneath you, so you’ll probably fall right into it.”
“Oh.”
“And it doesn’t really get as high as a plane would, so we can’t give you a parachute. Not that having one would help much with that whole ‘falling into the blades’ issue.”
“Right.”
“If you want to switch, there’s still room in the rocket powered pogo stick test group.”
“…I’ll take my chances.”
I want to know how the design meeting went.
“Alright, the army wants a single-man aircraft that an infantryman can learn to fly in 20 minutes. Any ideas?”
“Well, I saw this Wile E. Coyote cartoon last night…”
“Great! Whatever he did, do exactly that. He knows what he’s doing- It says “genius” on his business card, after all.”
@LazyRyder
Yeah, the mission makes sense, but the vehicle itself is a disaster. It’s bigger, noisier, harder to operate, and less efficient than a Jeep, with the added “bonus” of a huge potential for horrific injury and/or death to the pilot and bystanders. The other flying platforms were a lot less crazy:
(They still wound up being impractical, though.)
If I’m not mistaken, these flying platforms were envisioned as a light recon vehicle similar to the jeep that wouldn’t have to worry about minefields or rivers and other barriers. The problem was that even without the ability to fly jeeps were still rugged and useful in many situations whereas these things were temperamental and overly specialized.
“So what happens if I fall off?”
“Well, there’s a giant spinning blade right underneath you, so you’ll probably fall right into it.”
“Oh.”
“And it doesn’t really get as high as a plane would, so we can’t give you a parachute. Not that having one would help much with that whole ‘falling into the blades’ issue.”
“Right.”
“If you want to switch, there’s still room in the rocket powered pogo stick test group.”
“…I’ll take my chances.”