
Is that a Vauxhall Labrador?
A-HAAAAA!
286 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Jun 2007
......... I just wish I could stop thinking of this; it’s more than a movie. My Mom used to think I was too into WoW but that was just a game. I quit playing and told my guild wife there to just forget me. This feels real, that is just stupid now. I don't even really want to go into work. And I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air...
And El Reg in general...
I seem to recall on Blue Peter or something many years ago seeing them make 'helicopters', whereby you take a strip of paper and tear it lengthways then fold the two halves out into 'blades'. When you realease it from a height it spins like a sycamore seed.
If you were to produce a similar albeit more advanced/sturdy version with your electronics at the bottom it would have the advantage of being able to freefall at high altitudes where the atmosphere is thin, then when it gets into denser air you wouldn't have to worry about changing from freefall to flight mode - the drag of the blades should keep it the right way up and it'd start spinning and slowing itself down (or at least reaching some maximum velocity).
If you were feeling particularly clever, you could make the blades adjustable so you could used the accumulated rotational energy to actually slow the descent and even hover.
If you tie a bit of string to the release mechanism, then hold on to the other end and let the balloon go, then so long as you've cut the bit of string to the correct length then when the balloon gets high enough the string will pull on the release mechanism and launch your Vulture 1.
As an added bonus, if you then tied the ground control end of the string to a fence or lamp post, you could leave the balloon up there as a sort of 'space elevator lite'.
Is they're better able to survive collisions? I saw wildlife on one or something about butterflies, and how they can still fly when their wings are torn to shreds, perhaps there is an advantage there.
Also, if they can make one this size that works, they could potentially make it smaller still. I'd guess that mini helicopters couldn't be shrunk to the size of a blue bottle and still work? Although blue bottle sized helicopters would be very cool toys.