Germans use trickery in an attempt to humiliate a humble Chinese farmer

As we know Chinese farmer Shu Mansheng is trying to create the first craft that will allow octocopter-assisted human flight. As the above viedoe demonstrates, it appears that the Germans have entered and won the latest aeronautical race with their E-Volo Multicopter. As they reported in a recent press release:

At the end of October 2011, Thomas Senkel of e-volo had completed a series of unmanned tests and was ready for the first manned flight on an airstrip in the southwest of Germany. The flight lasted one minute and 30 seconds, after which the constructor and test pilot stated:

"The flight characteristics are good natured. Without any steering input it would just hover there on the spot".

This could be the future of flight, piloting a device as simple as a car.

That's all very impressive sounding until one carefully examines the film and notices that, not 8, but 16 little electric engines power their flying machine. Aha, so the whole mutlicopter name is just a clever ruse to try to conceal the fact that they're cheating by flying a sixteenocopter instead of an octocopter. Shame on you Germans -- shame, shame, shame!
  
(via The Escapist)
 

Human octocopter flight -- the final frontier

Well, I assume that it would be a final flight if this lunatic ever got this contraption off the ground. I've posted about filming with model octocopters, the video above shows a Chinese fellow who's trying to build a full scale version he can fly. 

The words 'death trap' come to mind. He's attached 8 motorcycle engines with wooden propellers and coke bottles as gas tanks to a frame. The motors have to be hand started and he sits in a fabric basket in the middle and tries to control its flight. It throws out clouds of exhausts and bucks around a bit, but never really gets off the ground. 

I'm guessing that's a good thing -- off hand I can think of hundreds of ways that that thing could kill people while idling on the ground, the number of possible deaths would surely go up exponentially if it ever got airborne. Still, even if he deserves no credit for foresight, you have to give him credit for trying.

From Hack a Day's article Octocopter will someday kill somebody. From a commentor at that article:

Since no one of HAD clicks through or reads….the video above is “showing an earlier model with rings of fabric around four of the propellers meant to help direct the downward thrust as a steering mechanism.”

If you clicked the link and read you would find…..

“Local farmer Shu Mansheng starts the engines of his self-designed and homemade flying device before a test flight in front of his house in Dashu village on the outskirts of Wuhan, Hubei province September 21, 2011. The round steel flying device, which cost more than 20,000 yuan ($3,135), is the fifth model made by Shu, a junior middle school graduate. It measures around 5.5 meters (18 feet) in diameter, and is powered by eight motorcycle engines. Shu managed to hover for 10 seconds at about 1 metre (3.3 feet) above ground during a recent test flight.”

A lot of the rest of the comments at that article are a complete hoot. A one of my favorite exchanges:

nootropic says: I’m an optimist. This is the safest octocopter I’ve ever seen.

Patenomics says: Yeah I agree. Everyone is being a bit too motherly. I’m sure we’ve all almost lopped off one of our appendages in the name of science before.

Almost? says: I lost three fingers to an electric motorcycle built from chainsaws. This guy looks like he could mow down a crowd.

Filming with an octocopter

The above film was made by Microcoptervideo, a Spanish firm that specializes in shooting these types of films. It is of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in northern Spain and some of the interior shots are spectacular, although I wouldn't mind slapping the editor upside the head for some of his quick cuts and speeded-up transitions. (via Open Culture)

It was using an octocopter, which is a radio controlled helicopter with 8 rotors to provide the lift. The octocopters also have built in  GPS and gyros to provide precise positioning control and stability. This provides an ideal platform to lift small HD video cameras. Octocopter kits are for sale at the German site Coptersale.

Below is a long video (over 15 minutes) of two fellows flying their octocopters over an old coke oven plant in Germany that has been converted to a museum. What is of interest in it is that there are shots where you can see one octocopter filming the other in operation.