Another Awesome Way to Spend Money and Hurt Yourself

For those of you with a desire to combine your soaring and hang-gliding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpemglwS8XA&feature=player_embedded

I love how easy it is to get going.

That's incredibly cool and somehow deeply hilarious.

MAn, the stall speed must be close to zero! That alone makes it fairly safe.

Mind blowing. And full circle back to Kitty Hawk and even Da Vinci.

How soon do you figure that somebody on this board buys one and adds a jet engine or something?

jimbob_racing wrote: How soon do you figure that somebody on this board buys one and adds a jet engine or something?

It's like you're reading my mind dude...

Price?

Pretty neat. But yeah, the plane-with-legs thing is really hilarious looking. I don't think I'd be able to resist the urge to wear really garish plaid pants or leiderhosen, just for the additional comic effect.

RossD wrote: Price?

I think it is one of those "If you have to ask, you can't afford it" type of deals....

that reminds me of my bucket list, I need to hitch a ride in a sail plane.

nderwater wrote: Mind blowing. And full circle back to Kitty Hawk and even Da Vinci and the Flinstones

Fixed...

Isn't this what those guys have been trying to do for years in that Red Bull contest where people jump off of a dock in various non flying contraptions?

edit: I guess a glider that actually flies well would be rather boring in the "Flugtag"

It almost looks like a really cool Halloween costume...that flies!

I would try it..

Here's pricing...

http://ruppert-composite.ch/rokdownloads/public/archaeopteryx/preise/Pricelist_6.2011_eng.pdf

That's Swiss Franc's. Comes out to about $82,268 USD for the base model... Not exactly GRM.

In reply to MrJoshua:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Im8VtLQgh4&feature=related

Some people in MN were rather sucessful in the Red Bull contest. Their airplane is similar to the one in the original post

So if we put toyman and 914driver in a garage for a weekend - jet-powered sail plane

So all I need is $83k and a big hill.

I tried to build something similar out of bamboo and plastic sheeting when I was a kid I think my parents only let me try it because they knew the wing was undersized Had some fun little hops with it, still, so it wasn't a total loss.

That's pretty cool! Looks like it's built along the lines of a RC plane.

I bet it would be, er, interesting to have a sudden wind gust come up while wearing that setup.

$82,000 will buy a lot of stuff. This world class competitor with a 42:1 L/D is $36,000 and would be easier to sell in a few years than an ultralight.

Very low stall speed is good/bad, it's very light so it will climb well but it won't have the penetration to get you home.

These guys below are similar but way cheaper to buy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAGpZnFHQk0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FsCyP_GZPY

jimbob_racing wrote: How soon do you figure that somebody on this board buys one and adds a jet engine or something?

This is screaming for one of those convert a used turbo to a mini jet engine jobbies.

File this under "things I didn't know I desparately need to have."

I bet the landings can get interesting.

I'm waiting for a vid where the pilot rides a bigwheel tricycle or something suitably absurd like that to achieve liftoff velocity. Running is for chumps.

Try running and tripping.....