Ultralight Dinghy When madness gets wet

[hoopa 0]

You have to see this one.

I can just see how this one got started.

Two guys sitting around in their shed; "Wouldn't it be great if we could just fly the boat to the lake...", and hey presto another oddity of nature is born.

http://gizmodo.com/383996/dinghy-%252B-hang-glider-%252B-giant-engine--hilarious-obituary

[Jeigh1405241495 0]

Bahahaha, ok that is awesome. If I had the cash I would SO build one of those things haha. Sure it looks like it would fall apart causing some pain/death but damn it would be a fun way to go eh? Ahhh good times.

[docduke 0]

I suspect that of being a photoshop job. Note, in particular, the angle of attack (the angle that the wing tips up relative to the horizontal) and the height above the water. The angle of attack is high enough to be unstable, and the altitude implies 20 minutes at least of climbing -- not likely.

 

I was at the "Transpo" event held at Dulles Airport in the 1970's when one participant flew a hang-glider towed behind a pickup truck. He would tip the nose of the glider up and down to show the audience he had control. The day after I was there, he tipped it up a bit too much, and it stalled. As Rush Limbaugh would put it, he "assumed room temperature" that day.

 

I don't doubt they can be built, and flown. I do doubt that picture.

[jimmy89 0]

It may be fake, but it does look like so much fun! It'd be good to just see one of them going, and even better to be flying it!

[UnnamedAlias 0]

I think I saw it in a recent Popular Science magazine, which means it probably isn't fake. That doesn't absolutely resolve the matter, but I trust the research abilities of Pop-Science magazine editors.