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.)-- dsm, Dec 25 2001 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] Extreme Commuting by V-1 Replica Extreme_20Commuting_20by_20V-1_20ReplicaBakeable ... [8th of 7, Jun 18 2009] Sure, it's all fun and games until there's a mass exodus. Then it's just HEVs bouncing off each other...-- phoenix, Dec 25 2001 How about that catapult idea someone had on here a while back . . .-- bristolz, Dec 25 2001 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.-- jimithing, Dec 26 2001 why not have communities with drainage ditches that double as emergency waterslides? when it gets bad, everyone dives onto the nearest waterslide and get "channeled" to a central pool area or underground railway-- Arcanus, Jun 18 2009 We have this.
Come, join us ... dont' be afraid .... you know you want to ... why hesitate ?-- 8th of 7, Jun 18 2009 Tell me, [8th of 7], are you the 'Customer Facing' avatar of the Aggressive Hegemonising Swarm that is the Borg Collective, or are you just having a bad day?-- gnomethang, Jun 18 2009 We have been reading a book called "How to make friends and influence people".
We are giving it a try. But we are not convinced.-- 8th of 7, Jun 18 2009 That explains that, then. No English gentleman would begin a sentence with the word 'but'.-- gnomethang, Jun 18 2009 halfbakery