Need a new toy? Help fund the remote controlled car-quadcopter hybrid that refuses to break
Kickstarter is at its finest when it serves as a platform for mavericks with a unique vision to showcase their bonkers ideas.
Witold Mielniczek is one such maverick.
Last year he was part of the winning team in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s contest to build a hovering reconnaissance drone. Needless to say, he’s a guy whose drone-building credentials can be relied upon, and his latest project will not disappoint.
Meet ‘B’, the remote controlled toy car that doubles as a quadcopter. It is designed to survive falls from great heights, can take-off while driving, and has a built-in HD video camera.
If funding is secured, Mielniczek has plans to enable B to drive up walls and land on water. Awesome doesn’t even come close.
Watch the campaign video:
Indestructible design
B’s patent pending design includes a body made from polycarbonate. According to Mielniczek, this is the same material used in protective goggles and bullet proof windows, providing a sturdy shell for the vehicle.
The wheel housing is made from a flexible structure, making it resistant to hard impacts resulting from crash landings.
The wheels themselves naturally protect the propellers, but Mielniczek has included a flexible rubber propeller-saver allowing the propeller base to survive contortions, just in case.
Full size vehicle
Mielniczek dreams of one day building a full scale version of the vehicle that can hold people – a real life flying car – hoping to create a new type of rescue vehicle and spawn a new genre of racing sport at the same time.
Mielniczek holds a first Class Honours in Product Design and Robotics, and is currently studying a PhD in Computational Engineering and Design.
With his talents and credentials, Mielniczek’s dream of building a life-size flying car doesn’t seem so crazy, and we’ll no doubt be seeing more from him in the future.
But for now we’ll have to make do with B, which is not far off from its £86,500 goal at the time of writing. So open your wallet, go to the campaign page, and give this man some money.