Somewhere between a luxury car and a personal airplane, the Lilium is a two-seat electric vehicle designed to take off and land vertically, obviating the need for runways and making it a candidate for flying to and from your suburban driveway.

Developed in a European Space Agency business incubator in Bavaria, Germany, the flier is scheduled for release in 2018 and will be the first of its kind.

The fixed-wing design will likely be limited initially to conventional airports, despite its advanced capabilities, but its makers hope that as adoption of the new technology grows new laws will also be made to accommodate fresh capacities for departure and landing anywhere. As of now, the Lilium only needs a patch about 50 by 50 feet to get off and back onto the ground, and has a cruising speed of 250 miles per hour (and range of over 300 miles) – definitely more than your typical commuter car.

“Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life,” said Lilium CEO and cofounder Daniel Wiegand. “We are going for a plane that can take off and land vertically and does not need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport. To reduce noise and pollution, we are using electric engines so it can also be used close to urban areas.”

The post Lilium: World’s First Vertical-Takeoff Personal Aircraft first appeared on Gajitz.

When New Zealand’s Martin Aircraft Company announced plans for a “practical jetpack,” this oxymoron of a device no doubt raised a few eyebrows. Originally slated for a mid-2014 commercial release, it’s been retooled and the company hopes it will be available for consumers by 2015. If the above picture is any indication, cult leaders will find it perfect for an escape hover just above the heads of their demystified followers.

The Martin Jetpack’s initial applications will be in first responder-type scenarios like fire and rescue. On a full tank, the gasoline-powered beast can remain in the air for around 30 minutes and travel about 20 miles at up to 46 MPH. The company most recently improved the handling on its P12 prototype by re-positioning the craft’s ducts.

For ideal performance and safety, Martin suggests the jetpack be piloted above 500 feet, mainly to give its rocket-deployed ballistic parachute time to open. It will also require the user to wear a helmet, neck restraint, boots, a fireproof suit and hearing protection. By the time it reaches the US market, it is expected to carry a relatively-modest $100,000 price tag.

The post In Mid-Air: First Consumer-Available Jetpack Ready In 2015 first appeared on Gajitz.

The parachute is an object that is so smart and well-designed that it’s hard to imagine the world without it. Indeed, some form of parachute has been envisioned and/or used since Leonardo da Vinci’s time. But the modern backpack parachute has only been in use since the early 20th century, and it’s all thanks to a Russian actor named Gelb Kotenikov. Kotenikov was inspired to improve on the parachute design after witnessing the tragic death of a pilot in an air show. Contemporary parachute designs were actually connected to the plane via a series of strings, a solution that was nearly as dangerous as a potential fall.

Kotenikov knew that his new, safer design would have to be attached to the pilot at all times and would need to have an automatic trigger in case the pilot was unconscious. He experimented with all types of devices, from a parachute helmet to a parachute belt, but finally (and wisely, we think) settled on a hard-side backpack to carry the chute. The invention, called the RK-1 at the time (for Russian Kotenikov 1), attached to the plane via a cord that would activate the chute when the pilot was a certain distance from the aircraft.

Sadly for Kotenikov, he never received widespread recognition for his design. The Russian military at first feared that their pilots would bail out and abandon their planes at the first sign of trouble, destroying expensive equipment. Kotenikov took his design to Europe where he hoped to develop wide distribution of the RK-1, but one of his prototypes was stolen and copycat parachutes began popping up all throughout Europe. By the time World War I was underway and other people took over the development and refinement of the parachute design. Kotenikov never got the acclaim he deserved, but his ultimate goal of saving lives was achieved – and we like to think the actor-turned-inventor was satisfied enough by that.

The post Jump! The Forgotten Inventor of the Backpack Parachute first appeared on Gajitz.

Be honest: when you think about the world of the future, do you still picture flying cars? Even though it’s still impractical to have a bunch of cars flying around in neighborhoods, a small aircraft that converts to a street-legal car is getting pretty close to becoming a reality. So it makes sense that, as the technology to fly airplanes gets smaller and cheaper, we should be producing aircraft that are smaller and cheaper. John McGinnis wants to put an airplane in every garage, to make them as ubiquitous as minivans and station wagons for busy families on the go.

His project is Synergy, a family-size light aircraft that aims to make air travel cheaper, simpler, faster and far more comfortable than flying on commercial planes. It sounds a little bit insane at first, but it’s hard not to get caught up in McGinnis’ enthusiasm for this revolutionary concept.

He is raising money for the project on Kickstarter (as of the time of publishing, the goal has already been met) – but this project doesn’t bring with it the usual swag that accompanies Kickstarter start-ups. The team isn’t sending out individual aircraft in exchange for pledges; they are simply offering the chance to be a part of a new branch of aviation history. The money will be used to create a working prototype which can then go through the rigorous testing required to bring the Synergy into our everyday lives.

The Synergy is so revolutionary in part because it doesn’t even have wings. Rather, it has a double box tail which McGinnis says reduces drag dramatically. He calls it a “modern magic carpet” that will allow the little plane to fly with ten times the fuel economy of a small jet. The 25% scale model that has already been built seems to fly very well.

McGinnis is realistic about the long, bumpy road ahead of the Synergy. He doesn’t expect to have it in every driveway in the next year. But the project is gaining steam from supporters around the world who agree that this is the first significant advance in aircraft design in a lifetime. Who knows – maybe in a hundred years the Synergy will have a place of honor in the history books right next to the Spirit of St. Louis.

The post Affordable Family-Size Plane: Station Wagon of the Future? first appeared on Gajitz.

When it was introduced in 1969, the Concorde was thought of as the most revolutionary aircraft of all time. The supersonic airliner flew at record speeds, dramatically cutting the time of travel between Europe and the US. But it was also incredibly noisy and caused plenty of pollution. A tragic crash in 2000 led to the Concorde’s retirement in 2003. Now, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company N.V. (EADS) has unveiled what they hope will be the Concorde’s natural heir, only without the air and noise pollution.

The Zero Emission High Speed Transport (or ZEHST) is a hypersonic jet that will fly above the atmosphere at Mach 4 – four times the speed of sound – and run on biofuels, creating only water as a byproduct. The plane would carry between 50 and 100 passengers, accelerating at a slow enough pace that, despite leaving the atmosphere, passengers would need no special instruction briefing before the ride. Cruising altitude for the ZEHST will be 20 miles, over three times the standard cruising altitude of a conventional airplane.

To achieve its incredible flight times, the ZEHST will take off with a standard engine. Once airborne, rocket boosters will propel the plane above the atmosphere. Then, once safely above the atmosphere where sonic booms are no longer a problem for those on the ground, ramjet engines (the kind currently used in missiles) will kick in to zoom the plane on to its destination in record time. The standard engines re-engage to bring the craft back to the ground. Although all of the necessary technology exists today, EADS is reserved about the future of this monumental aircraft. They don’t anticipate it will start flying commercially until 40 years from now.

The post Hypersonic Plane Goes From London to NY in One Hour first appeared on Gajitz.