In a message dated 4/24/00 12:27:25 AM Central Daylight Time, spike66@ibm.net
writes:
> GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
>
> > Are you saying there already are autostabilized helicopters?
>
> I am. The model has four horizontal propellers. The guy claimed
> there was a piezoelectric gyro within which fed additional power
> to the appropriate propeller to keep the rig stable. His controls
> were simple enough and he flew it around briefly. My neighbor
> has one like it, so it is evidently a kit of some sort. I cant find
> a site that describes that rig, but here are a couple of interesting
> sites for electric helicopter fans. The first one shows an electric
> helicopter dropping a sugar cube into a cup of tea. {8-]
>
> This is how I know the singularity is coming: we have so
> damn much idle technology and money, we are doing silliness
> like this with it. {8^D spike
>
> http://www.planetinternet.be/pixel/
> http://liaison.ms.u-tokyo.ac.jp/agusta/link.html
Thanks for the links, Spike. These are, to use your phrase, wicked cool.
Things have indeed progressed very far in the decade since I used to spend
time at the RC field (to give you a clue, the transmitters on the wall
beneath the sailplanes that hang from the ceiling in my study are analog!).
I can easily see a practical, relatively inexpensive electric helicopter
surveillance platform that could be operated by even an inexperienced pilot
being developed by 2005. Problem I foresee are 1) such a light-weight craft's
buffeting by even minor turbulence, 2) its short range and 3) the risk of
injury from the rotor blades if the air becomes filled with such little
critters.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
ICQ # 61112550
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
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