Project?

Okay – I know this is going to go nowhere, but I’ve been thinking about this for a couple days, and just want to get it down in case I forget.

What I would like to build:

An electric vehicle that you can “fly” around on.

Obviously, not literally – thus the quotes. But picture this – a very low-to-the-ground aluminum frame with four ~6″ wheels. The rear two are driven by motors from electric drills (or something similar). The driver lies down on the thing face-down – as though you were riding a sportbike, but instead of tucking your legs under you, you extend them straight out back. The driver’s arms sit in “cradles” that are hooked up via linkages to the front wheels. Instead of steering by turning a handle, you steer by leaning – redistributing the weight on your forearms. Braking would be handled by some bicycle disc brakes attached to the front wheels to complement the deceleration from letting off the electric motors.

It seems like it’d be relatively straightforward to prototype – you’d just need a couple high-powered electric drills you can take apart, some of that aluminum strut stuff you can quickly connect in a variety of ways, and some wheels. If that all works, suspension and the like come later. The question is, would it be fun? (I think yes). Would it be practical? Oh, hell no. Would it be usable on the street? Not technically, no, but I’m sure it’d be a blast to ride around the block.

2 comments

  1. Seppo says:

    More thoughts:

    Probably don’t need four wheels – just need a single drive wheel in the back. Probably also don’t need the front wheels to “steer” per se – rather, the whole front of the frame can pivot on a single point roughly at the waist.

    That might not work, simply because the turning radius would be enormous, and the front wheels wouldn’t have the proper Ackerman angle when turned, but for a first pass, it might not be too bad. Later iterations could add front wheel steering? I dunno.

    Also, there’s an Instructable for an electric race car that has a lot of stuff that would be helpful to this project:

    http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-an-electric-racing-car/

    Obviously, a different form factor, but the basics are the same – they use car batteries. I could probably get away with just one battery – probably mounted under the driver’s chest.

Leave a Reply