I thought for atleast twenty seconds this would be a video showing a engineering failure having to do with (harmonic oscillation) resonance frequencies.

This is too cool. I seriously want one of those, but I do have a few questions to be answered before:

- How long is the battery expected to last?
- What sort of airspeed is it capable of?
- Max altitude?
- Pressurized cabin, if max altitude is high?
- Is it possible to land horizontally? The VTOL doesn't seem possible in the event of an engine failure or if the battery runs out.
- What type of license would be required in order to fly one of these? A cross between a plane and a helicopter, multi-engine aircraft.
- Communications? Avionics? Access to any of those seems sort of limited in the position you'll be flying in.
- Field of view: You'd be looking straight down for most of the flight. Anything coming from above you will be very hard to notice.
- How does it handle itself in bad weather?
- Can it taxi by itself?

Either way, I'm in love with the design. It's just beautiful.

It is quite simple the solution to the so-called "issue" of health care in the United States. The subject needs little or no banter representative of what can be seen *above, from people who sit at their computers after having ingested newscast, after article, after explanations and solutions by politicians and so-called "experts", who then satisfy themselves that they have a clear picture of how and why the system is in the state that it is.

The country is replete with wind-baggers (see most of the comments above in the "it will be so much better to create a PLAN category) who think they have a clue as to how and why it has reached such a pathetic, critical mass. Watch and read how they take what is promulgated by media and pundits, process the "dis-information" with their tainted apparatus, convinced that one action or the other will create some alternative to the insane state of affairs with regard to the MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT.

The solution??

Teach people about a healthy way of being. Teach them from infancy, and most importantly, provide them with the raw materials (i.e., diets that are not full of poisons in the form of preservatives, sugars, etc etc), right down to pesticides or whatever one's pet cause for health is. Deny the manufacturers and purveyors of poisons disguised as foods the ability to create human sewage bins, otherwise known as MOST AMERICANS.

-Hobble the fast-food corporations whose criminal intent is akin to manslaughter.
Encourage a collective boycott of all processed, nutrition-less crap by giving people who don't eat the garbage, free health care. None of this can be done without retraining the ignorant masses-THIS INCLUDES PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT WE NEED HEALTH CARE REFORM.

Retrain ignoramuses, and all that the country will need after a couple of generations, are emergency rooms with crack trauma units to patch up the injured. Cancer will disappear. Obesity is the main cause of the dilemma America finds herself in. Diabetes will vanish in those with no genetic predisposition. Stress-related heart problems will fall like a 767 with complete engine failure.

Health care does not need to be reformed. The book of what is edible, nutritious, and real, needs to be re-written. That and the government and television need to be universally ignored.

Need I even mention people who should not be having children, who will grow up fat and ignorant because mankind in her present state is critically dysfunctional; or the undeniable fact that a country to the south of the border of the U.S. is in full-speed sublimation??? Get real, whiners. Use common sense and don't settle for solutions offered, so much Band-aid on an exit wound to the skull.

America would not even need the health care system she has were it not for the putrefaction of human beings by those who profit from collective ill-health. Learn to eat.

I agree, this is clearly an overrated case of false sensationalism and has no place in the Top15. I need to see a Space Shuttle colliding with a dragon mid-flight and then with complete engine failure being landed on a puddle. Only then will I even consider upvoting.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:
>> ^ant:
Was there a pipe underground that showed up at the end?

That was the tunnel area where normal drainage would occur. It jumped to the surface after the run off water unburied it. It was either clogged or couldn't keep up with the amount of water needed to go from one side to the other. Once the water level came up to the top of that, it was only a mater of time before that road was undermine.


>> ^jwray:
Epic fail for the engineers who designed this road.


Or the drainage pipe.

I like how the pipe that was supposed to drain away the water crept up towards the end like an angry metal monster. *engineering failure!

Just did a news check (X prize cup news/media is irritatingly restricted) and looks like they've had a crash (new link btw)

That link has a vid, but its at range so you cant see too much. Hopefully better vids will get released.

Looks like the following occurred: Module 1 made a successful first run (90 sec flight time minimum, 50 meters into the air, then over to a pad another 100 meters away and land). They would then have been able to refuel, before making the return trip, for another 90sec flight. This return trip is where the crash occurred, just at the last possible second. They had flown the 100 meters horizontal, and where hovering low over the pad so that an engine failure would mean they were low to the ground, not falling form a full hight, however, the extended low hover + dust made things unstable, and it tipped over on landing. So close, but still very impressive. Its unfortunate that they have been unable to make flights like this, in testing (insurance reasons, safety reasons and license reasons) so simple things like "don't hover too low to run the clock down" could have been learned. In fact, they might have won this last year if they could have done such testing and thus discovered the landing gear/gps offset probs they had. Still, apparently they have a spare Mod so can re attempt the Level 1 challenge for the $350k, and still have PIXELS level 2 challenge to go.

Whatever happens, I'm certain their project/development would continue, but if they can succeed, the prize money and media coverage will be great both for them and the ammeter rocketry community in general. Bring on space for the common person

I'd much rather be in a helicopter than a fixed wing plane when an engine fails. Believe it or not, a helicopter can glide just like a plane can, but the helicopter still has an advantage even with an engine failure in that it can still land vertically. A plane must always land moving forward.

It's quite easy to talk about all of this after the fact. But, if you think back, everybody was still thinking "crash" up until the second plane hit.

Contacts ARE made, this is standard. Wether it is a 747 crashing because of engine failure or other.

And, commenting on the reaction of Bush (which, I am NOT a supporter of. I just had the second guessing psychobable that seems to come out. Bush is NOT the coordinator of FAA/NORAD/FEMA/NSA/Secret Service, or anything other than the situation he is currently in, he is simply the elected leader. Otherwise, the whole US government would fall apart every night when he went to sleep.

Would they have rather had him run out of the elementary school screaming?

That would have helped the whole "terror" thing, now wouldn't it?

The simple truth is, there were actions going on. People were being mobilized. Agencies were doing their jobs.

A lot of this conspiricy garbage is as if, anytime someone cleared their throat, that it was proof of some sort of coverup. Now, everyone goes out and looks for the times people cleared their throats.

(And, everyone seems to forget that even Democrats clear their throats.)

Ok, so the idea that Kennedy might have been shot by someone else, is quite understandable. However, to believe something along the lines of which these conspiricy theorists are asking us to believe, is way over the top.

Need I remind that, although there is a Republican President, it does not mean that every government worker, every civilian contractor, and anyone else involved in Aviation/Security/World Trade/Communications/Defense is now somehow part of the Republican party.

Most of the things that are spouted off are not even backed up with anything. I mean, seriously, how many cousins does Bush HAVE?

It is normal for people to take events and investigate, question, and try to understand. But I bet you can find these sort of ties with pretty much any event in current history, if you tried. It does not make the conclusions drawn, any more truthfull.

Everyone talkes about the "controlled demolition" garbage. We have lots of information regarding that. Now, how much information do we have regarding near fully loaded aircraft striking skyscrapers and the aftermath thereof? Well... unless you have a ton of information showing me how they should have fallen otherwise... I still can't make the same connection.

I can show you THOUSANDS of buildings, burned and destroyed, in which they didn't land all over a five mile radius. What else would you expect?

Oh, so they fell from the top down? As apposed to what?

I understand the hatred of Bush. There are ENOUGH things the he has done in public eye, to hate him over. Let's not start looking completely insane while we try to vilify him.

Sweet mother that was crazy; I've done that many times in computer games - ah, fun times with Gunship 2000 and Jane's Longbow. Could've also been an engine failure; you can auto-rotate to slow down in such a situation, which seems like what happened - by the time they crashed they were almost at a full stop - then there was just the matter of skidding off the roof. I'm not suprised the chopper was designed to help you survive at least that.