/ News
Hoverbike aims to take aviation to a new level (video)
Deep in the English countryside, aeronautical engineers are perfecting a new generation of aerial drone. With increased stability and manoeuvrability, and able to carry a much heavier payload… it represents a significant leap forward in drone technology. This small drone, however, is just the 1/3rd proof-of-concept model for something much more ambitious. A full-sized quad-copter hoverbike that can be piloted by a person as well as flown by remote.
It's the brain-child of engineer and helicopter pilot Chris Malloy, who first tested his concept with this bi-copter design.
(SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH)
CHRIS MALLOY, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MALLOY AERONAUTICS LTD AND ORIGINAL DESIGNER OF THE MALLOY HOVERBIKE, SAYING: "I've always been one to look at designs and see how I can make them better. And when I got my helicopter license I realised that the helicopter as a design has a lot of improvements that need to be made, and one of them is safety and reliability. They're very complex machines. And my goal was to see where we could strip away the complexity and increase the safety and that's basically where the hoverbike came from." Engineers at Malloy Aeronautics are currently completing construction of the final prototype, with flight tests expected in a few months. The team first plan to launch the hoverbike as an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle, before securing aviation certification for the manned model. Meanwhile, the smaller model has proved popular with drone enthusiasts around the world and is contributing revenue towards the design and production of the full-sized version. Marketing director Grant Stapleton explains that the manned hoverbike is designed to be flown like a helicopter and as such will be subject to the same stringent testing before a human can take to the skies.
(SOUNDBITE) (English)
GRANT STAPLETON, DIRECTOR, MARKETING AND SALES FOR MALLOY AERONAUTICS LTD, SAYING: "This hoverbike is a helicopter. It takes off like a helicopter, it flies and lands like a helicopter. It's designed to fly to an altitude of over 9,000ft and do so at over 100 knots. It's much safer to be away from the ground where there isn't anything to hit in the air, and that's why it is designed as a helicopter." That issue of safety is one area where the team says the hoverbike has a clear advantage over the helicopter.
(SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH)
CHRIS MALLOY, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MALLOY AERONAUTICS LTD AND ORIGINAL DESIGNER OF THE MALLOY HOVERBIKE, SAYING: "Rotor-strike is a major issue with helicopters this here eliminates rotor-strike by protecting the propeller blades from the ground and other airborne obstacles. The helicopter is inherently complex, the hover bike is very simple. So, from a complexity issue the hoverbike is safer. And it's built to be robust and flown in environments that a typical helicopter would have trouble with." While Malloy's vision of manned hoverbikes maybe years away from reality, the advances in drone technology that the team is making means that ambition is nearly within his grasp.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/video/2014/08/20/hoverbike-aims-to-take-aviation-to-a-new?videoId=340553849&videoChannel=6
/ About us
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”.