undefined | Better HN

0 pointsRobotbeat9y ago0 comments

I think this takes some time. It takes 2 years of constant practice to learn how to walk well, and we evolved that capability. Learning to hover and fly might similarly take years. He most certainly could do it, but at significant risk of breaking bones and wrecking his equipment and/or starting on fire.

0 comments

SideburnsOfDoom9y ago

> Learning to hover

But if there's no ground effect in those videos, then he can already hover. So if there's plenty of footage of stable hovering at 0.5 meters "in mid air", why is there none at all of hovering at 3.0 or 5.0 meters? It doesn't entirely convince me that it can be done.

RobotbeatOP9y ago

For the same reason that just because you can balance on a balance beam 30cm from the ground, you'd probably be hesitant balancing on one 5 meters off the ground.

EDIT: If you want to see him testing the concept in a bunch of iterations, you can check out the vimeo page here: https://vimeo.com/gravityindustries/videos/

Arguably, the leg-mounted jets COULD be close enough for ground effect, but they're apparently destabilizing so they switched to two backpack-mounted engines instead.

SideburnsOfDoom9y ago

> just because you can balance on a balance beam 30cm from the ground, you'd probably be hesitant balancing on one 5 meters off the ground

I get what you're saying, but when applied to someone supposedly building flying machines, I just find it a bit of a thin rationale.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

SideburnsOfDoom9y ago

> Learning to hover

RobotbeatOP9y ago

For the same reason that just because you can balance on a balance beam 30cm from the ground, you'd probably be hesitant balancing on one 5 meters off the ground.

EDIT: If you want to see him testing the concept in a bunch of iterations, you can check out the vimeo page here: https://vimeo.com/gravityindustries/videos/

Arguably, the leg-mounted jets COULD be close enough for ground effect, but they're apparently destabilizing so they switched to two backpack-mounted engines instead.

SideburnsOfDoom9y ago

> just because you can balance on a balance beam 30cm from the ground, you'd probably be hesitant balancing on one 5 meters off the ground

I get what you're saying, but when applied to someone supposedly building flying machines, I just find it a bit of a thin rationale.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse