The Pentagon is going to develop flying motorcycles in conjunction with the British company Malloy Aeronautics. Work in this direction will be carried out by a military research laboratory located in Maryland. Lieutenant Governor of Maryland Boyd Resenford told about this to reporters. In this matter, the American army, as they say, intercepted the initiative, since the project of a flying motorcycle, or hoverbike, which has been under development for more than two years, has recently begun to stall due to a lack of funds from developers.
The author of the concept of the flying motorcycle was the Australian engineer Chris Malloy, who hoped to create a civilian version of the hoverbike and release it into mass production. In this case, the price of one motorcycle would be 40-60 thousand dollars. At the same time, he announced the collection of funds for the launch of the series, but the announced campaign yielded disastrous results. Therefore, it is currently not clear whether work will continue on the creation of a civilian model, or the developer will focus all his efforts on creating a military version of the machine in conjunction with the company SURVICE Engineering, which works in the field of research and development of military technologies.
It is worth noting that initially the creators of the flying motorcycle promised to achieve impressive performance for their car. The hoverbike's flight altitude should be up to 3 kilometers, and the speed will be up to 278 km / h. At the same time, the flight range on one fuel tank should be 150 km, but the developers also admit the possibility of installing a hinged additional tank. As the US military explains, the Pentagon has expressed interest in hoverbikes, since such machines are universal. Flying motorcycles can be an effective means of aerial reconnaissance and surveillance, and they can also move soldiers over difficult terrain. In addition, flying motorcycles have increased maneuverability compared to the same helicopters.
Initially, there was no talk of any military use of the new mode of transport. When a few years ago, Chris Malloy, an engineer from Australia, promised on the Internet to create a personal air vehicle that could be driven as easily as a regular motorcycle, it was purely civilian technology. It is worth noting that Australian and British engineers have been working on the project of their air motorcycle for more than two years. At the same time, they talk about the serious advantages of hoverbikes and full-size drones for military use over helicopters. In particular, they are safer, their survivability in combat conditions is higher, since they can fly without human control and be controlled remotely. And the cost of these devices is much less, the same can be said about their maintenance.
From the early stages of development, when the main element - carbon propellers - were made by hand and their cores were filled with foam, the technology has evolved significantly. The two-propeller design evolved into a quadcopter. The solution, which is offset and overlapping rotating blades, is designed to reduce the weight and area of the structure. At the same time, when folded for transportation, the quadcopter takes up even less space.
At one time, to prove the viability of its concept, Malloy Aeronautics built a model in Hampshire that was 3 times smaller than the original device. At the same time, it was equipped with a pilot's model, in order to demonstrate the ability of the hoverbike to carry a person, even then a camera was mounted in the head of the robot pilot. It was the demonstration of this model that allowed the company to attract funding for further development. The created model of the device could stably perform the required maneuvers at different altitudes. At the same time, the full-size prototype of the device was tested only with safety cables that kept it at a low height.
Designed in 1: 3 scale from a full-size model, the model received the designation Drone 3 Hoverbike. It was an unmanned aerial vehicle that could be controlled in the traditional way using remote control. Even then, the developers stated that the manned quadcopter they were creating would receive stable handling, good maneuverability and carrying capacity, while becoming a unique vehicle of its kind. In 2014, development engineer Grant Stapleton said that a hoverbike is essentially a helicopter - it takes off, flies and lands like a helicopter. The machine is designed to fly at an altitude of more than 2.5 km at a speed of up to 200 km / h, Stapleton noted.
According to the developers, a full-fledged hoverbike will have increased maneuverability and stability in flight, it will be able to be controlled by the operator and automatically follow a pre-mapped flight route or simply fly after the person controlling it, like many modern unmanned aerial vehicles. The device will be able to carry a significant load, while it is easy to transport, takes up little space. These flying motorcycles can be transported on C130 transport planes or ships, says Grant Stapleton, director of marketing and sales for Malloy. A lot of such devices could be close to where they are needed or very quickly and easily launch right there, he noted.
According to the developers, the low price and practical size allow the hoverbikes to be used for rescue operations, as well as for rapid response measures and delivery of goods to hard-to-reach areas. Mark Butkevich from SURVICE noted at the Le Bourget Air Show that the Pentagon is really interested in such a technology due to its multipurpose application. With the help of a new type of transport, the military will be able to effectively move soldiers through difficult terrain, as well as use them for reconnaissance, air support and transportation of goods. The inhabitants can only hope that air motorcycles will retain the status of dual-use technology and will be able to find their niche in the form of a civilian vehicle.
It should be noted that Malloy Aeronautics is not the only company working in this direction. The American company Aerofex is also working on the creation of air motorcycles. They planned to release a commercial version of their development in 2017, while the price of the device was supposed to be 85 thousand dollars. The American company from California claimed much more modest characteristics than their competitors from England. The two-person Aero-X hoverbike they are developing will be able to hover up to 3.7 meters above the ground at a top speed of 72 km / h, allowing device owners to be free of roads.
