Czechoslovakian Flying Bike – ET, Here We Come

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 2 Comments

The dream of flying a bicycle is older than the special effects magic of ET, harking back to the aviettes of turn-of-the-20th century France and the works of Jules Verne and Czech writer Jaroslav Foglar.  A Czech design team may soon make this fantasy more believable. Technodat, a Czechoslovakian CAD developer; Evektor, designer and manufacturer of light sport and general aviation aircraft; and Duratec, a bicycle and bike supplies firm, have consolidated efforts with Dassault Systémes and CAXMIX – both partners providing software platforms, to make this long-sought dream a reality. Their so-far virtual reality is the FBike, a velocipede with six propellers that can make brief hops off the ground and stabilize itself in all three axes while in flight.  First tests of the actual machine are due in August, and it will be seen whether it can jump over traffic and make its way in a third dimension.  The makers are doing this as a proof of concept, …