Flying Platforms

As many people from the 'old days' will remember Dick Tracy had an arc about a 'Moon Maiden' and Flying platforms.

I've looked into them and wondered if the Mil ever developed one that was worthy. In fact I see one called the VZ-1 Flying Platform that just looks like a mockup with a suspension cable airbrushed out (i.e. no sign of propulsion/fuel, a big fan).

To me, if we really had unusual propulsion among the black projects, one that would be really cool would be a one man flying platform. Of course we've all seen the jet pack that 007 flies in Thunderball, but those were only short hops.

That being said, not much to discuss but here's a cool page that covers it:

www.airvectors.net...

Hope this is entertaining.

a reply to: Maverick7

Here's another cool entry, the Martin Jetpack. Supposedly commercially available:

www.gizmag.com...

Enjoy!

originally posted by: Maverick7
As many people from the 'old days' will remember Dick Tracy had an arc about a 'Moon Maiden' and Flying platforms.

I've looked into them and wondered if the Mil ever developed one that was worthy. In fact I see one called the VZ-1 Flying Platform that just looks like a mockup with a suspension cable airbrushed out (i.e. no sign of propulsion/fuel, a big fan).

To me, if we really had unusual propulsion among the black projects, one that would be really cool would be a one man flying platform. Of course we've all seen the jet pack that 007 flies in Thunderball, but those were only short hops.

That being said, not much to discuss but here's a cool page that covers it:

www.airvectors.net...

Hope this is entertaining.

Here's one in action,



This one goes through the ages,



For other stuff, a Coanda-effect model, it doesn't use helicopter style rotors for lift, it uses air drawn over the upper surface....not air exhausted as a repellant,

Here is a similar concept that Lockheed is currently working on:

a reply to: Maverick7

I remember seeing a (leaked back in the day) video for what was purported to be the VZ-1 shown in your link, and that it's now in a museum. However, while the museum piece has a large fan and a tether for power, the video didn't show any evidence of a fan. For instance, you would expect to see movement of dust beneath it, but none of that was seen in the video of what was supposed to be the same craft later released for display.

This led some to believe that the released craft was not reliant on the same technology they purported, or what was shown in the video. Many believe that the leaked video was a genuine trial of a craft which didn't use any conventional system and that they developed the fan powered craft to cover up the leak of the truth.

It's all very interesting, but I have no doubt they've already developed an alternative form of propulsion that we have yet to see publicly. I don't think these things would be viable using any form of propulsion we're familiar with, there's no benefit to them, they're heavy, require a massive amount of energy, they're noisy... when you consider what our goals would be in the development of craft for warfare - you end up with a high-speed, enclosed, aerodynamic, silent craft capable of bypassing radar - which sounds like almost every UFO ever reported.

don't think the tech will ever exist, either lack of fuel, or stability issues.
would be kewl though.

remember these?

^^ Jonny Quest?

(Wild guess)

you guess correct!
here's a couple more. IIRC most of the show was real-world tech but they had early lasers and computers (I don't think we were sure what those things would do) in some episodes.

Interesting that the January issue of Air & Space magazine had a Flying Platform as its One More Thing pic for 2015.

HIller 1031-A-1