GINGER

[Ted Ledbetter <tedled at earthlink dot net>]

>> "..."GINGER" is a modernized permutation of a fifty year old army 
>> design 
>> for a one man stand-up ducted-fan firing platform. The concept has 
>
>Isn't that just a Hiller Platform?  If so, they don't need a fly by
>wire system, because they were steered by "leaning" your body
>weight -- a very natural way to do it, I might add.
>
>> i said earlier that a gyro-stabilized hi-tek scooter is still just a 
>> scooter, 
>> but , if i add a lift-fan and turn it into a gyro-stabilized 
>> flying-scooter as
>
>The "release date" is still a year away -- who thinks that this might
>be a ploy to get the most creative minds on the planet to speculate
>as to what kind of fantastic invention it could be, and then prototype
>it within a year?
>
>     -- Chuck Knight

hi chuck,
...your'e correct that it's probably a Hiller Platform, but the basic 
problem with such platforms, as i understand it, is that most humans 
are not agile enuff to "lean" steer a basic platform...it takes a good sense 
of balance in a person to react quick enuff to manually stabilize  a basic 
platform...
...but adding a gyro-stabilizing-system can make this an easy-to-use  
vehicle, much like the development of automatic-transmissions and 
power-steering-and-brakes did for cars fifty years ago...i remember
that my mother could not synchronize a stick-shift and clutch, but when 
my parents bought our first automatic-trans&power-steer car, my 
mother used it so much that we then needed another car...

...so, IMHO, it's the gyro-system and GPS-nav that could transform what 
is an inherently-unstabile platform (flyable only by physically-fit 
trained pilots) into a mass-marketable flying sports-utility-vehicle
that almost anyone can operate...

...and i really believe that Kamen already knows what he wants
to produce, especially because he is an experienced helicopter pilot
(he owns two, one piston, one turbine) who has already developed 
a gyro-stabilized wheelchair...it looks like he's is doing (or has done) 
what every really great inventor does, he creates somthing he wants 
for himself...and, for Kamen, it looks like he wants something to replace 
the helicopters he uses for commuting between home and office-lab...

...and it's reasonable that the current timing of all this hype etc
is based on the fact that they filed their patent-application just 
last month and then began to seek financing, which allowed their 
secret to "leak"...
ted