Hi All, Having looked at the video, and thought about this for a bit now, I will posit just one thought, given that no earlier postee has even touched on it.
If the images are real, then the pilot is totally fu*ked in the head. The flyboard is one thing, and although I have not looked into it, it appears to actually exist, and is used over water, by design. If the driver should that be diver? - falls off ( a regular occurrence??), it is into water, from a small height, with no (or at worst, little), injury to the driver. Put me straight here, if this is not the case. The skyboard, as presented, is something else again: It is just a death machine. Here (if we can believe it), is a dude riding this device, as if it is a surfboard. Let us consider a few things. If a (non-extreme), surfer falls of his board, he falls into water, without harm. In the case of the skyboard, we have a guy standing/balancing on a platform without a handhold. This platform is shown flying at various heights over a variety of surfaces including land .... if the video is for real. So we get to the crux of the matter: Without a handhold it is almost certain that this pilot will hit turbulence and (sooner rather than later), it will be of such a magnitude that he cannot cope, and he will be tossed off his platform, and will fall from whatever height he is at, into whatever is below. Hmmm! To me, it is unlikely that even the most extreme adrenalin junkie, would ride a machine as pictured. ANY designer of a real machine, would provide at least a minimal hand hold for the pilot of such a device. Apart from anything else, the Money (backers), would insist! QED Gary From: Aus-soaring [mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.base64.com.au] On Behalf Of Mike Borgelt Sent: Saturday, 16 April 2016 6:41 PM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] skyboard In a few frames of one of the vids I think you can see 4 exhausts. I'd say 4 AMT Titans, or jetCat 400s or the 40 Kg engine from the makers of the TJ100 her http://www.pbsvb.com/customer-industries/aerospace/aircraft-engines/tj40-g2- turbojet-engine . Possibly the last as the engine is shorter than the others. I've the 20Kg engine they also make last December. Two were installed on a Cri-Cri at the homebuilders' airfield at Serpentine near Perth. The TJ100 is used by Bob Carlton in the Super Salto. It started life as the APU for the Mig 29. Nice engine with integrated starter/generator, recirculating oil system etc but overkill I think for this use or a motorglider. There's a nice turboprop version in development currently flying in an RV-10. Expensive, unfortunately. Mike At 01:50 PM 4/16/2016, you wrote: A few people think it may be a JT 100 or similar light aircraft turbine. Backpack most likely holds fuel. Such flying boards using water propelled from a jetski engine already exist. Nothing in this video is unbelievable. On Saturday, April 16, 2016, Ross McLean <ross...@bigpond.net.au > wrote: The pilot is Franky Zapata, the inventor of the Flyboard, which is a water powered version of the Airboard. He appears to be extremely capable on the water powered Flyboard so I would expect he would be equally at home on a jet turbine powered unit. I really don't think it is a fake. usually with these things there is only one scratchy video. He has several high quality video's showing take-off, landing and generally flying around. If you look at the video from Mike's link, he clearly takes off and flies away. I have downloaded the video and gone over it frame by frame, I can't see where it is faked.  I'm with Mike on this one, if you are sure it is a fake please let me know what you can see that I am missing. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________  Ross McLean  From: Aus-soaring [ mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.base64.com.au <mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.base64.com.au> ] On Behalf Of Mike Borgelt Sent: Friday, 15 April 2016 1:06 PM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] skyboard  At 08:07 AM 4/15/2016, you wrote: fake  Do you have some knowledge or a link you can share with us that says it is fake and gives some evidence? Because nothing being shown is physically impossible. Last year we had the JB-9 jetpack flying around the Statue of Liberty. 2 x AMT Nike engines for 160 Kg thrust. Was that fake too? The guy with the jet powered wingsuit, Yves Rossy? This thing could use 4 x AMT Titan engines for 160Kg total thrust. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble for a fake. Note the two electric ducted fans either side for yaw control, the hand held controllers. There's another vid showing the takeoff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn99MimWOxA  Note the gridded takeoff platform to prevent hot gas re-ingestion into the engines. Zapata Racing, the company involved already make various water powered jetpacks for recreational use. Water is pumped through a hose and ejected downwards for thrust. So the pilot is likely an experienced jetpack/platform user. Mike Borgelt Instruments - design & manufacture of quality soaring instrumentation since 1978 www.borgeltinstruments.com <http://www.borgeltinstruments.com/> tel:  07 4635 5784     overseas: int+61-7-4635 5784 mob: 042835 5784                : int+61-42835 5784 P O Box 4607, Toowoomba East, QLD 4350, Australia _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.base64.com.au http://lists.base64.com.au/listinfo/aus-soaring Borgelt Instruments - design & manufacture of quality soaring instrumentation since 1978 www.borgeltinstruments.com <http://www.borgeltinstruments.com/> tel: 07 4635 5784 overseas: int+61-7-4635 5784 mob: 042835 5784 : int+61-42835 5784 P O Box 4607, Toowoomba East, QLD 4350, Australia
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