Rocket powered helicopters. Sounds like a ridiculous idea, doesn’t it? That’s exactly what the Dragonfly DF-1 is.
So how can such a device work? To start, you create the lightest-weight helicopter you possibly can. Lightweight materials and construction, no unnecessary parts. Then you attach rockets to the ends of the rotors; they provide the power that spins the rotors and allows flight. In addition to sounding unspeakably cool, the rocket powered design eliminates the need for an engine turning the rotors, which helps to increase the craft’s stability. An extra-stable helicopter is a much easier to pilot helicopter.
Sounds pretty cool so far right? It’s rocket powered, it’s stable, it’s easy to fly; it’s hard to imagine how it could get much cooler, but it does.
When you think rocket powered, you tend to think rocket fuel, which by and large is pretty nasty stuff. Not in this case though; the rockets this thing uses are powered by hydrogen peroxide. Yup, that same stuff you pour on cuts when you’re doing manual work, like, say, assembling lightweight personal aircraft.
Granted, the mixture this uses IS stronger than you typically get at the drugstore, so it’s not the cheapest fuel, but hydrogen peroxide is incredibly environmentally friendly. The exhaust the rockets give off is water. You don’t get much greener than that.
Now of course comes the catch; the fuel isn’t the only pricey part. Looking at TipJet USA’s price page gives us an introductory price of $120,000 USD. Yes, introductory, so this may not be the answer to your dreams of zipping over the congested streets of your daily commute. If you’re a serious aviation buff though, and you have the disposable income, you’ll be flying in style.
(via Wired)
Very cool!!! Maybe Cali, after your Para-Jump, you’ll go for a private pilot’s licence of some kind. I can just see you behind the wheel of a highly sophisticated Cessna Citation CJ-4or Bell Huey UH-1 as marvelous gadget of which *YOU* could command the air above. Don’t get me wrong, I love helicopters for their agility & grace through the air. But-t-t-t, less that 2 miles from my house here, their is a medical airlift base, and all hours of the day & night, these air chopping whirly-birds fill the sky’s with an almost cantankerous drone. At least I’d call it *that* during sleeping hours…… “B”
Hey Bruce R., as much as you might not like that noise the helicopter makes at night, just think that most likely they’re saving someone’s life. We don’t take off during the day or night unless there is a medical emergency to fly to. With today’s economic worries, management doesn’t let us fly as much anymore, even for training, unless someone is paying the bill for the flight.
I don’t think the small inconvenience of a little noise would be even noticeable if it were one of your friends or a family member who is going to be air lifted to a hospital. Also even small complaints are heard by the local regulators and I’ve seen how a few complaints have forced bases to close down leaving many others without the valuable service of an air ambulance helicopter.
I’ve been flying air ambulance helicopters for the last 5 years, after I retired from 21 years in the military, and all it takes is 1 person to come later to say thanks for saving their family member to make it all worthwhile.
Be safe!
Agreed, very cool!
My concern though is that, even though the waste of burning the fuel is greener than average, the production of the fuel in the first place requires the consumption of energy and produces it’s own byproducts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_peroxide#Manufacture
You pour bleach on your cuts? What the hell is wrong with you?
Hey Bruce R., as much as you might not like that noise the helicopter makes at night, just think that most likely they’re saving someone’s life. We don’t take off during the day or night unless there is a medical emergency to fly to. With today’s economic worries, management doesn’t let us fly as much anymore, even for training, unless someone is paying the bill for the flight.
I don’t think the small inconvenience of a little noise would be even noticeable if it were one of your friends or a family member who is going to be air lifted to a hospital. Also even small complaints are heard by the local regulators and I’ve seen how a few complaints have forced bases to close down leaving many others without the valuable service of an air ambulance helicopter.
I’ve been flying air ambulance helicopters for the last 5 years, after I retired from 21 years in the military, and all it takes is 1 person to come later to say thanks for saving their family member to make it all worthwhile.
Be safe!