Gizmodo
Alexander Begak is a test pilot and the chief designer of Evolution, a flying pod that can travel on land, slide through water and snow, and fly thanks to a gliding parachute that acts as a soft, highly portable wing. The one or two-seater vehicle made of Kevlar and titanium was presented at the crazy 2007 Moscow Air Show, but it's now available starting at $7,200. While the Evolution looks nice, their most amazing personal planes are yet to come: the Sirius and Iris, after the jump.
SCARAB Aviation Lab spokesman Gregory Omelchenko told us that the Sirius and the Iris are "still in the design phase," but they are planes that "will be manufactured in the future." The company says they work with the Federal Space Agency, the Moscow Aviation Institute and Sukhoi, the third largest manufacturer of fighter airplanes in the world, including the mighty SU-3X series. Hopefully, that means that they will be able to make them into a commercial reality instead of just being some dream designs out of a Star Wars movie.
The two-seat Evolution DT model, however, is just "a few weeks from being completed and readied for commercial production," so if you are looking for a low-cost pod to fly with a co-pilot, get $11,500 ready. Like the one-seat Evolution ST, these are also hand-made with and get shipped "60 days after payment," according to Gregory. [Scarab via Sense4Fun]
Comments
Whoa... thats pretty affordable. How do I go about ordering one? I can sell my beater and mess around with that at the local air strip.
Why must cool things be so ugly?
@P3nnst8r: Stupid aerodynamics...
WAY more cost effective than I had anticipated. What kind of mileage does it get?
How does that smaller one "slide through water"?
Looks like its just one big hole.
screw saving up for a motorcycle
is the $7200 model made out of recycled laundry detergent bottles and WWII surplus materials?
What's the deal with the girls in the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" shirts? Can I get them in a Simon shirt instead?
Cool designs!
Of course if it flies I'm pretty much interested.
The other two designs look a little "Rutan"-ish, (arguably almost anything with Canards is going to bring that to mind) but you can see they are original in their lines and geometry.
Good stuff!
[skavkaz.rfn.ru]
video^
you could really fuck someone up if the things go in reverse
@faabshaam:
if you drop $8K on a toy - really, how much can you care what kind of mileage it gets? i'd pay $3 a mile to fly one of these.
@P3nnst8r: Dude! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. At least that's what my mom tells me...
but seriously how can this thing operate with out some kind of hand-chopping-off-guard?
@discounteggroll:
Thanks for vidlink.
With a sack out back you could do some efficient duck harvesting...
wtf, travels through water land and air, but not time? no thank you.
@feckineejit: "hand-chopping-off-guard"? Amazingly enough the human race has been operating prop airplanes for close to a century without said safety devices. Sure, I'm sure there have been some accidents but most people just "know" to keep their hands away from big spinning metal blades.
I'll wait for the intelligently designed one.
/end sarcasm
through land? i plan to use this to bore to the center of the earth.
@Jakus: LOL Exactly what I was thinking!!
Move out of the way and lemme get a better look at that SU-27.
Flying horseshoes... AWAY!
@ibelli:
My thoughts exactly!
That last plane has an interesting design though.
I read "SU-3X" as "SUX" at first.
@feckineejit: You mis-heard. She said beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
I think I saw one of them in Spain over the summer. It looked cool, but it was far away (in the sky) so I couldn't make it out clearly
@harumph: Dang... you beat me to it. And for that, COTD!
let's be practical: can you store the canopy inside the vehicle when it's travelling on land?
Once again, flying cars will always fail because people have a hard enough time getting a car to roll over a flat surface without killing each other, no one wants to have a flying car drop on them in traffic.
Yeah the plane looks good, but what about that hot russian MILF in the main pic. Yowza!
I'm far more interested in those Sukhoi's in the background. Are they 27's or 37s? The 37 can fly sideways and even backwards for a short distance thanks to thrust vectoring that is more advanced than anything the US has in a production aircraft.
its like a improved version of the Half Life 2's Air Boat...
@ibelli:
these are MiGs
"slide through water"
...
So...are we talking a puddle or a lake here? Big difference. I'm not seeing this thing in a lake.
Great... a vehicle you can die in three different ways. Just what I need...
I looked into it, and found some answers to my questions, along with a disturbing question...
For the answers, it can be outfitted with optional and removable skis and pontoons for snow and water...
The disturbing part, is the black plane, the Iris, says it's crew is 2 человека, which unless my russian is more rusty than I think it is, means it's crew is 2 children...
@EvilJ:
you can already die those three ways in a regular car, silly.
@JeffCarr: "it's crew is 2 children..."
I'll take "it screws 2 children for $400 Alex"
@foxmajik: Your exactly right you got too many jackasses on the roads we dont need them in the air imagine you just sitting in your living room and a drunk flier crashes into your house.
How about working on cars that drive and or fly there selves first before the public gets this.
Reverse gear + crosswalk = big mess
I'd buy that for a dollar!
Nice... at least the land and water part. Air part is kinda dangerous and not very practical, since it works as a paraglider.
Personally, I'll wait for the Icarus to come out.
Love to see how the average citizen would handle an engine failure ;) Yeah, you can glide the things (just like anything with a wing), but the typical idiot behind the wheel (yoke) is going to pull UP when the ground starts getting uncontrollably closer - and that's the wrong move.
Plus I don't need eight million of these little plastic bubbles cruising around getting in my way when I'm trying to fly through a terminal area. Think NYC, at rush hour, in the air, and everyone's top speed is about that of a mountain bike, when someone comes blasting through in a Porsche. Trouble.
@utube2007: hey , ide rather the jackasses get in the air and water, and hopefully space. its too easy not to kill yourself being stupid right now. air, and especially space, are a lot less forgiving. clean the gene pool a bit.
+5 points for the Scarlet Letter gals:
[gizmodo.com]
-
Me:
Sure it can travel on land, slide through water or snow, and fly--but can it make julienne fries?
Ron Popeil:
CAN IT?! ONLY AS FAST AS YOU CAN DUMP SACKS OF POTATOES INTO THAT WHIRLING BLENDER OF DISFIGUREMENT IT USES FOR PROPULTION!
Me:
+5000 points!
@Bokusatsu_Tenshi: Bah, those've been around for a while, and not too many people kill themselves in them, but yeah, quite impractical to set up, but very practical to carry around (well moreso than a full size solid friggin wing anyways..)
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