[B]Jetpack[/B]
Myth: Can you build a jet pack from plans on the Internet
A fun, grand, ambitious build for Jamie and Adam: building a jetpack.
Jamie and Adam were given $10K and one month to see if they could build a jet pack from plans off the Internet. They purchased plans off the Internet for under $100 that weren't for an actual 'jet' pack, but instead a 60hp gas engine hooked up to two propellers with cowlings that can purportedly carry a 200lb pilot. According to Jamie's calculations, the plans could theoretically work, though they don't know of anyone that has actually successfully built the pack in the plans. Also, plans were vague, so there would have to be some improvisation.
Jamie and Adam visited Nino Amareno, who was listed as a "Rocket Pack expert." Jamie gleefully strapped himself into Amareno's rocket pack, though they didn't show him actually flying with the pack. Adam: "I've never seen Jamie so happy in my life."
[B]History[/B]
The first attempts to bulid modern rocket pack started in the 1950s. The breakthrough came in 1961 with a military-funded project by Wendell Moore of Bell Aerosystems, the [URL="http://www.internetage.com/rotorcraft/bell_rb/rocket_belt.html"]"Bell Rocket Belt."[/URL] It could fly up to 60ft and up to 60mph, but the military pulled the plug because it was too noisy. The show neglected to mention that another big flaw was that it could only fly for 20 seconds.
For some later attempts at jetpacks, they talked to North E. West at the [URL="http://www.hiller.org/"]Hiller Aviation Museum[/URL] in San Carlos, CA. West showed them the [URL="http://www.hiller.org/flying-platform.shtml"]Hiller Platform[/URL], which was the earliest ducted fan design that lifted a man. The design took a $0.5M to build and placed the pilot on top of a single ducted fan.
The also looked at a [URL="http://www.solotrek.com/devhistory.html"]Solotrek XFV[/URL], which is similar in design to their own backpack. The XFV prototype they saw never flew, but it's successors did. After seven years of development costing $10M, the XFV took it's on November 2003 was the maiden flight -- it barely lifted off the ground.
The final design they look at was the [URL="http://www.moller.com/skycar/"]Moller Skycar[/URL] in Davis, CA. Moller has spent $200M on the design and believes that nearly everyone will have a skycar in the future. The Skycar is billed as "the first and only feasible, personally affordable, personal vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle the world has ever seen."
[B]Picking up parts[/B]
[B]Backpack[/B]: Jamie and Adam visted the junkyard visit to pickup some alumninum and iron to build the pack. They both lusted after a large block of aluminum (Jamie: "It just like gets me all worked up just looking at it")
[B]Engine[/B]: They visited California Power Systems to pick up the engine, first searching for the [URL="http://www.kodiakbs.com/engines/503.htm"]Rotax 503 dual carb[/URL] that the plans specified. The owner suggested that they go with a Rotax 583 instead, which is lighter and more powerful. They bought the 583 but eventually switched it for another, unnamed, lighter, similarly powerful engine.
NOTE: I can't find official Rotax 583 specs, this is the closest I can find: * [URL="http://www.rdaerosports.com/fet.htm"]R&D's 583 Rotax[/URL] * [URL="http://www.rotax-aircraft-engines.com/aircraft/aircraft.nsf/eng_582UL?OpenPage"]Rotax 582 specs[/URL]
[B]The Build[/B]
Jamie: "This is exactly the kind of project that motivates me personally, so I'm going to be losing some sleep on this one."
[B]Ducted fans[/B]: Adam worked on the cowlings, building them out of stacked roofing foam that he then shaped on a lathe and coated with carbon fiber strips. There needed to be a 1/16" clearance between the propellers and the cowlings to generate the proper thrust.
[B]Backpack[/B]: Jamie worked on the structure for the backpack, elongating the plan's design so that and lowered the engine could balance the pilot more properly.
Other build components: * Propellers from a hovercraft manufacturer * Vanes mounted below the propellers * Reinforcement struts added to support the ducted fans * Armrests * Joystick * Throttle control
Adam's first prediction: * 5% chance that someone flies * 80% hell of a racket * 15% of horrible, horrible disaster
[B]Test Flight[/B]
FAA came to classify the backpack as an ultralight so that Jamie and Adam can do an unregulated test flight.
Adam has lowered his prediction to 2% that it's a viable flying machine.
Buster Test Runs * Adam: "The first official flying test of the WIDOWMAKER!" * First run: Jamie's moustache blew upwards, and there was lots of noise, but it did not make it off the ground. Jamie believed that the fuel mix was wrong because the engine wasn't reaching its powerband, so they made some adjustments. * Second run: Engine reached the "butter zone," but Buster made it only an inch or two off the ground.
Adam believes it's a weight issue, but Jamie believes it's a thrust issue as the design is supposed to generate 500 lbs of thrust. They compromise for the next test run: Buster is removed to lower the weight and a layer of balsa is added to the inside of the cowling to reduce the gap between it and the propeller.
The final test runs: * No Buster: Still no go. Jamie: "If it was correctly balanced, it would be flying, without anything on it, but not with a whole lotta excess." * With Jamie as pilot: "It feels like I'm sitting on top of a drag racer."
Jamie: "Well, the main thing that it feels like I'm in some kind of mixer."
The backpack is nowhere close to flying. Their opinion is that the average joe could not possibly take those plans and be successful.
[B]busted[/B]
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