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It is easy to think of several situations where it would be desirable to flee a suburban area as quickly as possible. In the event of a nuclear threat on a nearby city, for example, it would not be practical to rapidly escape by car, for obvious reasons. Thus, suppose a vehicle similar in design to the
German WWII "buzz-bomb", with several key differences. Instead of a bomb, it would hold a very simple cockpit that holds no more than one or two people and their seats/belts. The plane would be similar to the buzzbomb in that it would be launched (rocket-assisted?) from a small ramp, would run on gasoline, have no controls except for a fuel kill-switch, and land by parachute only (accelerometer-triggered.) One would point the ramp/plane (kept in a garage or backyard) in an appropriate compass direction, adjust the angle of the ramp to clear nearby trees, get in, and ignite. A cheap GPS unit / map inside would allow the occupant to determine when the plane is above a "safe" (inland, far from major targets) area. Then, the engine is killed and the parachute (whole vehicle) is triggered. The only major difficulty in producing such a vehicle would be to minimize its cost, as well as ensuring that "just the right number of people" have them (suburban airspace is somewhat finite.)
http://www.planethalflife.com
HEVs;phoenix? [technobadger, Dec 25 2001]
Catapult to work
http://www.halfbake...to_20Work#999505005
. . . or catapult away from home (HECs) [bristolz, Dec 25 2001]
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Sure, it's all fun and games until there's a mass exodus. Then it's just HEVs bouncing off each other... |
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How about that catapult idea someone had on here a while back . . . |
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This might work. You would have to only sell it to a
limited number of people though, because whoever said it
was right -- launching a bunch of these at the same time
would be the same as standing in ground zero. So you
would have to make it a first come, first serve basis, and
everybody would get their own little piece of sky. |
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