December 14, 2004

Cool airplane technology

Hat tip to we-make-money-not-art who posts this link to the Fanwing: bq. Patrick Peebles has created the FanWing, the wingless aircraft. He replaced the wings with a tube filled with blades that rotate like a harvester or like a water wheel on a Mississippi riverboat. This year, Peebles was flying a prototype with a 10-foot span, which he introduced to the public at the Farnborough International Air Show in Britain. bq. Compared with a traditional airplane, the FanWing can fly at much lower speeds but with greater stability and it is safer. It can take off from a relatively small runway and cruise at the pace of a car. It is also more fuel-efficient than a helicopter. bq. The only real danger is if the fan blades jam and cease spinning, then, it "drops like a rock."
fanwing.jpg
The website has some detailed explanation of how it works as well as videos of different models in flight. Cool stuff! Posted by DaveH at December 14, 2004 5:58 PM