/ News
Aero-X hoverbike goes on sale in 2017: Star Wars racing in your own back yard for just $85,000
It isn’t a hoverboard, but it is the next best thing: Californian company Aerofex is now taking down payments for the Star Wars-like Aero-X hoverbike. Priced at $85,000 the Aero-X certainly isn’t cheap, but if it actually comes to market as promised in 2017, I don’t think the price tag will be an issue for early adopters. The Aero-X, if it performs as advertised, will be capable of carrying up to 140 kilos (310 lbs), at an altitude of 3.7 meters (12 feet), at speeds of up to 72 kph (45 mph).
Aerofex first demonstrated its prototype hoverbike back in 2012. Back then, the prototype (embedded below) was little more than two huge ducted fans — like you might find on a hovercraft — with a bike- or quad-like frame and seat. The commercial version, the Aero-X, which is scheduled to begin flight tests in 2016, will look a lot slicker and feature an all-carbon-fiber-composite chassis, resulting in a rather lithe dry weight of just 356 kg (785 lbs). It’ll be powered by a normal gas-powered three-cylinder engine, which will allow it to carry up to two people (as long as they weigh under 140 kilos (including baggage) at speeds of up to 72 kph. It doesn’t mention it anywhere on the Aero-X website, but it will probably be very, very noisy. The fuel tank is good for 85 minutes of operation. The Aero-X is capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL).
Now, in theory, it isn’t actually very hard to strap two huge fans to a motorbike-like frame and putter around. What is hard is creating a hoverbike that’s safe, fun, and easy to control. There’s a reason no one has made a successful hoverbike before now. According to Aerofex, the Aero-X is “a hovercraft that rides like a motorcycle.” This is tough, due to something called the coupling effect. Basically, all open-rotor craft are unstable, finicky beasts that require a lot of skill to pilot. This is why you can’t just point a helicopter in the direction you want to go — there are all sorts of different forces at play that need to be controlled and counteracted at the same time, thus the helicopter’s massively complex controls. Merely leaning left or right, like on a motorcycle, isn’t enough — unless you have some clever technology that helps keep the hoverbike stable.
Aerofex says it’s solved the coupling problem, has filed the relevant patents, and thus — if all goes well — the Aero-X will be the first safe and easy-to-use hoverbike on the market.
At this point, you should probably be rather excited: Like the theoretical hoverboard, there could be some really, really cool applications for a stable hoverbike. With a max altitude of around 12 feet, you could take the hoverbike almost anywhere. You could cruise over deserts, fields, hills — and with the optional “flotation pontoons,” over lakes and rivers. By talking to the FAA, Aerofex found that the bike could be classified as something like an “aerial ATV” if its max altitude stays below 12 feet, thus removing any need for a pilot license. Beyond sports and recreation, there are also agricultural, police, and military uses. Judging by the amount of thrust produced by those rotors, though, you probably don’t want to fly over anything fragile — like, you know, small animals or your wife’s roses.
Aerofex is taking Aero-X pre-orders today, with expected delivery “in 2017.” The target price is $85,000, with a refundable $5,000 deposit.
Source: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/182642-aero-x-hoverbike-goes-on-sale-in-2017-star-wars-racing-in-your-own-back-yard-for-just-85000
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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