Pátek 29. března 2024, svátek má Taťána
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Lidovky.cz

Czech companies to roll out Flying Bike

  9:53

Czech bike, design, and computer companies team up to produce prototype ‘flying bike’ as showcase for their talents

The design of the Flying Bike has been completed with construction of the full-scale machine now underway foto: © TechnodatČeská pozice

A consortium of Czech companies have come up with a prototype for a flying bicycle that appears to come from the page’s of an adventure book for boys rather than serious scientific invention.

The Flying Bike — which has the characteristics of a mountain bike combined with six circular rotors that look a bit like giant sieves providing uplift and direction — should be able to take to the air for around three to five minutes, according to its designers.

The three Czech companies behind the project (mountain bike producer Duratec; aircraft design company Evektor; and computer-aided design and production firm Technodat) say they will roll out the prototype at the county’s main engineering trade fair in Brno in September. An early preview of the design was given in Prague on Thursday.

For those dreaming of self-propelled journeys to work or trips above the traffic in the near future, there is some disappointing news. The 85 kilogram construction is mainly powered by an electric battery — not leg power — and high winds look likely to make the short airborne ventures a perilous endeavor. The designers nevertheless promise a top speed of 50 kilometers an hour. ‘The realization of this Flying Bike project is not just the fulfillment of our boyhood dreams.’

The main coordinator of the project, Technodat’s director Aleš Kobylík, underlined its serious side. “The realization of this Flying Bike project is not just the fulfillment of our boyhood dreams. For our companies it is also a present on their twentieth birthdays, which, however, also demonstrates the great possibilities that are offered to industry from today’s developed software applications,” Kobylík told the Czech news server České Noviny.

“This is not a commercial project,” Kobylík told Czech Position. “There are two phases: the first, a virtual design of the flying bike has been completed, and the second, the actual construction, is still to be completed in time for the international fair.” He said the design process made use of computer design applications that had not so far been commercially used.

The project appears to have been party inspired by a fictional character from the hand of Czech boys’ adventure story writer Jaroslav Foglar.

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