NASA’s Puffin Is Way Cooler Than a Jetpack | Autopia | Wired.com



Not so sure I'd want to be around if the batteries went dead, a motor locked up or the controls failed.
I bet the glide ratio SUCKS!

 

Our AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS at work !!! What the heck Good is this thing gonna do ???
NASA is a dinosaur with a depth-less greed for our money ! But hey we know what the surface of Mars looks like !

 

I still defend NASA, they have promoted some very effective reserch in aerospace and communications over the years.

(To say nothing of things like the I.V. device my sister uses that was ORIGINALLY designed to administer drugs in space - it was just what an M.S. patient needed for infusion!)
But anyway:

According to budget documents obtained from the Government Printing Office, the national budget for 2007 totals about $2.784 trillion. At $16.143 billion, spending on NASA accounts for 0.58% of this.

Compare this to NASA’s allocation during the mid-1960s when, despite the pressures of the war effort in Vietnam and President Johnson’s Great Society programs, NASA spending made up more than five percent of the federal budget.

Got the above here:
The Space Review: Putting NASA’s budget in perspective

 

I assume a few things here, so bear with me. It appears that the engines and wings semi-articulate, like an osprey. And it's a turbo prop configuration. Though if it's electric it wouldn't need to be. This allows it to hover and land standing up. The tail is the landing gear. With all the computerization that an Osprey has it should be flyable.

 

Not a bad call, Rush.

There is a video in the link, it's an animation of what they WANT it to be like.... looked like an Osprey, a one-man Osprey.

What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

 

OK, now I notice the link.

On further inspection it looks pretty hokey. The video show it transitioning from upward to forward flight in a pretty unbelievable, unacomplishable way. speed, rudder, and elevator being it's only means of transitioning from helicopter to airplane mode makes this very limited in function. It's basically a rocket with a prop. This is what makes the Osprey a valid vehicle. The only benefit to the whole contraption is it would (sorta) have STOL capabilities. But transitioning for, and controlling where you land would be a b!tch.