Friday, March 5, 2010

I want one!!!


A New Zealand inventor has come up with something really nifty.

Rudy Heeman has spent the past three years building and designing the machine that can travel on water, land and air.

He is keen to develop the flying hovercraft design further, but said he needed to sell the machine to raise enough cash to do so.

"It's got the potential to go into production. I've got all the moulds and patterns to do this," Mr Heeman said. "I'm selling to fund more products and development."

. . .

Mr Heeman, a mechanic, has been making hovercraft in his spare time for more than 13 years but says this is his first attempt at a flying version.

He said he had spent 75 hours flying his completed hovercraft, and the thrill was unreal.

"It's like a bungy jump. However, the thrill lasts as long as the ride," he said.




"This machine is fast and furious, it roars like a lion, and is not for the faint hearted. It is adrenalin pumping and exciting."

With a 1.8-litre engine and a range of more than 225 kilometres, the hovercraft cruised at 90kmh when flying, and had a smooth ride above the waves, he said.

"The fuel economy is far better than a boat of the same size and speed."

. . .

Mr Heeman said the project had cost tens of thousands of dollars and he had built a new workshop, learnt how to become a fibreglass laminator and modified a Subaru car engine to power the vehicle in the process.


There's more at the link. You can find his advertisement for the 'flying hovercraft' here. Looks like it's attracting a lot of interest.

Here's a video clip of the craft in operation.





WANT!!!



Peter

3 comments:

Old NFO said...

Nice! And yep, that WOULD be fun!!!

PeterT said...

One does wonder what the certification requirements would be... single engine plane, with anfib endorsement?

Or perhaps LSA?...

Jenny said...

I wonder what its range and useful load are? I can see some of the guys up here taking an interest if it could haul enough to make it worthwhile - especially during breakup.