Starting Friday 01-10-03, you can bid on a personal aircraft called the "SoloTrek XFV Exo-skeletor Flying Vehicle," to help its designers raise funds for future research. There's a catch, though — the winning bidder on eBay must promise not to use the device. Story snip:
"Nobody has ever done anything like it," said Michael Moshier, chief executive of Trek Aerospace, the company that designed the machine. "It is the first aircraft that you can strap on your back and allows you to fly around like a bird."
He says the compact SoloTrek XFV can hover for more than two hours at a time and is easy to fly.The machine stands about 7 feet tall (2.1 meters), weighs more than 300 pounds (136 kilograms) and is a somewhat bizarre-looking contraption with its two overhead engines above the tripod frame that holds the pilot. It can hold a pilot and gear weighing up to a total of 240 pounds (108 kilograms). The aircraft is still in the developmental stage, but Moshier envisions a day when the sky is full of people dashing across town in the flying machines, which operate much like a helicopter.
Update: So where's the aforementioned eBay auction? It's Friday. Either it's not happening, or I just can't find it. Auction is here.
Link to story, Link to the Solotrek site, Discuss (image: Michael Moshier, CEO of Trek Aerospace, next to the SoloTrek XFV Exo-skeletor Flying Vehicle. Jan., 2002 AP file photo, Julie Jacobson.).
