Holy crap do they look dangerous!
Police in Dubai may well be the first to actually have hoverbikes. And all they have to do is risk life and limb on them.
Of course, it’s less a hoverbike, and more like a manned drone. And for some insane reason, they decided to go with exposed rotors over ducted fans. Either way, it’s hard not to see the value of the Hoversurf Scorpion 3 (the make and model of the bike in the video). The point is less that the craft is fast (it’s not, with a top speed of 46 MPH), but rather that it makes first response much faster. You know, since there’s no traffic 16 feet (maximum flight height) off the ground, and uncertain terrain stymies traditional vehicles. And it can lift over 600 pounds, so it is pretty viable in a crisis, to a degree. You know, other than the fact that those exposed rotors can turn you into human ceviche. Oh, and the very short flight time the batteries are capable of (about 25 minutes per charge).
Unsurprisingly, Hoversurf aren’t the only ones trying to get a hoverbike to market. The US Army has been working with Malloy Aeronautics on a resupply drone that the company states is rider capable. Airbus Group’s A3 is trying to get their Vanhana personal flight vehicle into hearts and minds. e-volo has their insanely rotored Volocopter. And Martin Aircraft Company has been working away on their Jetpack (which, ironically and typically for these things, features no jets) for a while now. It’s anybody’s guess who will win out in the end. But who cares as long as we get flying cars out of the deal?
Source: Autoblog
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