Skyrider One e-paraglider ebike

Hi Folks,

First electric, road-registerable two-wheeler to take you to the sky.



Video of First Flight and article on Gizmag:

https://youtu.be/C_CukSzts_Y
http://www.gizmag.com/skyrider-one-thomas-senkel-flying-electric-scooter/42544/

It's a two-wheel electric scooter with a 6 KW hub motor to drive the rear wheel and a 13 KW rear-mounted propeller.
A regular tandem paraglider canopy stored on the bike can be unfurled when you want to fly, and then it's a matter of gaining enough speed in scooter mode to fill up the 'chute.
Lifted off once, engaging the propeller drive gives you power in the air.
You can drive to your airstrip, fly to somewhere, and drive home after landing with all-electric drive.
It's quiet and doesn't make any pollution.
Once in the air, it's possible to switch the motor off altogether and ride thermals to keep yourself aloft for potentially hours at a time without draining the battery.
The prototype has a total range up to 75 miles on the road with a maximum speed around 37mph.
On powered flight you can run the propeller for half an hour constantly.

Cheers

Great concept - i fly myself.

How do you control the wing and steer the bike on take off?

Amazing contraption! I can't wait to see the next version. Speady, it appears he controls the front wheel with his feet. If you look closely you can see he has mounted the footpegs to the fork!

Yeah, starting seems to be tricky.
He has a right throttle for the ebike hubmotor to gain speed and a lockable left throttle for starting the propeller. So he has hands free after liftoff to steer the paraglider. At least he should have.
As you can see this Skyrider one is a prototype with some safety issues though.

I found an interesting article about the inventor telling much more about him and his Skyrider, Volocopter and Hooverboard and stuff: http://www.la-palma24.info/en/inventor-thomas-laces/

Probably we'll soon see further refinements of his hybrid vehicle.