Search results

Even a perfect Hiller platform would be stupid, because "steer by tilt" is a fundamentally moronic design and Hiller's obsession with rotors-on-the-bottom designs is even more so. Essentially, Hiller's kinesthetic steer-by-tilt concept was proposed "fly by instinct" -- much like a child's toy...

The 'original' Hiller platform could reach 16 MPH and up to 30 feet. However, the larger 'Pawnee' version that the military was actually looking at could only barely get out of ground effect and was even slower; it was also difficult to control, as it was found that it could not use the...

The Hiller's "flight" was so limited that for the most part, you could pick up and carry a bike over any obstacle it could actually fly over.

It's completely crazy when you realize even if they worked perfectly, these things were slower and less mobile than simply walking, and dramatically inferior to the hyper-advanced technology of "bicycle".

As ginormous as it is, it's vastly less than Cold War era budgets, and even by the late Cold War they were getting distinctly cold feet about granting the military more or less carte blanche for every crazy project it wanted to try. To be fair, military R&D really betrayed that trust by...