Gadgets

AK-47 maker whips up giant drone you can ride on

Russian manufacturer Kalashnikov Concern joins the crowded airspace around the idea of smallish pilotable drones.

by
• Edward Moyer

September 27, 2017

What if you could take a consumer drone, douse it with growth serum, and make it big enough to fly around in?

That's a brainstorm that seems to have occurred to a good number of people -- including, now, the makers of the AK-47 assault rifle.

Kalashnikov Concern, part of Russian defense company Rostec, posted a video to YouTube this week that gives a glimpse of a "flying car" prototype, Popular Mechanics reports.

The gadget, which seems far more dronelike than carlike, sports 16 rotors the size of ceiling fans. They're mounted on a metal frame that surrounds a minimal pilot's perch and what looks like a couple of suitcase-size batteries.

It's not clear what, exactly, the thing would be used for. Let's just say it probably won't be zipping over battlefields anytime soon; one imagines it wouldn't take much to knock it -- and the pilot -- out of the sky.

The gizmo joins similar contraptions in the drone-so-big-you-can-ride-it category. There's Google co-founder Larry Page's Kitty Hawk Flyer. There's Singapore's proposed flying drone taxis. There's the US Army Research Laboratory's hoverbikes. And there's the slick, mini-helicopter-like SureFly and the equally sexy-looking Ehang 184. Oh, and there's Airbus' drone-meets-pod concept.

There're also more home-spun, mad-inventor-y takes on the idea. The Volocopter is one. Colin Furze's hoverbike is another. And then there's this thing, from YouTube's amazingdiyprojects.

And if all those seem a bit too complex, there's always the tie-a-rope-to-a-drone-and-hang-on-for-dear-life approach.