Can scooters fly? Torrance man proves the answer is yes

[question everything]

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Can scooters fly? Torrance man proves the answer is yes

South Bay engineer-inventor comes up with a way for man to breeze along high above the ground.
By Doug Irving
Daily Breeze


(snip)

Shaw is 44 years old and lives in Torrance, an engineer by training and a dreamer by nature. Even as a boy, he invented a rocket launcher for the handlebars of his bicycle, with blast shields to protect his knees. He's working now on plans for space colonization. His thoughts turned to flying motorcycles a few years ago. It was the holidays, and he had some time off from work. What took shape that day between the pencil lines would soon become a full-fledged quest, to get a motorcycle into the air.

(snip)

It was his brother who suggested the parafoil. A parafoil. Shaw sketched it onto his pad, did a few computations. Wow, he thought. I don't see anything wrong with this. A parafoil looks something like a big parachute, shaped like a wing and steered by the cords attached to its sides. Shaw picked one that measures about 56 feet across.

Even at that size, it wouldn't support a full-size motorcycle. Shaw spent months looking for the right motor scooter, one that would be sturdy enough to support the engine but light enough to fly. He settled on a sleek Yamaha Zuma. He bolted a 4-foot-long propeller to the back, to power the machine in the air. He fixed two small fuel tanks to both sides, then attached the parafoil just behind the seat.

He took it to the desert for its first test flight. The scooter revved across the dusty ground, the propeller spinning in the back. The parafoil dragged behind it, then caught the air and swung up, up, above the scooter and up. The wheels left the ground. The scooter climbed. And then it was flying. Shaw figures he's spent about 27 hours in the air since then. His craft can go an hour or two at a time, zipping along at about 20 mph, a few thousand feet above the ground.

(snip)

Shaw has a Web site devoted to what he believes may be the world's first ultralight flying scooter, at www.ultralightflyingscooter.com His business cards describe his invention as "the innovative way to fly and drive with style!"

(snip)


Find this article at:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/2163667.html

[Cocoa]

1. the scooters fly in Torrance

they're connected at the roots.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. You know, call me crazy...

but that's actually pretty cool.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

3. Scooter Libby has been grounded. nt

[salvorhardin]

4. It'll be cooler with a Vespa

This anime has taught me.

[bbinacan]

5. I want one. n/t

[Vinnie From Indy]

6. Very cool!

The thought of many thousands of these flitting about in a city environment is a bit disconcerting.

I think there was aguy in CA in the 70's that tied a bunch of balloons to his Barca-Lounger reclining chair and got airborne. I believe he was spotted at about 10,000 ft by pilots on the glide path to LAX. He descended by shooting his balloons with a pellet gun. I seem to recall seeing him on The Johnny Carson Show.

[soothsayer]

7. It was a lawn chair, and TRUE according to Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/walters.asp