A man made a flying bathtub with drones & flew it to get a sandwich:

[tblue37]

Link to tweet

(Germany)

[Biophilic]

1. I'm laughing so hard it's hard to type this response. that is amazing. I love it. nt

[sop]

2. Who needs flying cars when we can fly around in bathtubs. George Jetson would be proud.

[Mopar151]

4. Chuck Berry set the standard!

[czarjak]

20. "We did it in the kitchen, we did it in the hall, I got some on my finger...

so I wiped it on the wall” Greatest R&R lyric of all time? Check out Live in London.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. I'm rather shocked that he didn't draw a crowd!

Are flying bathtubs common in this neighborhood??

[localroger]

6. It would be more accurate to say he turned the bathtub INTO a drone

These human-carrying multirotor projects are actually pretty common online, although not so common that you're so likely to see on in RL that you wouldn't be startled if it landed at your coffee shop. It's really the same tech as the smaller drones with bigger motors, more batteries, and pretty much the same electronics and software. I'd guess that like its smaller cousins the bathtub can fly for 5 or 10 minutes on a battery charge, which probably gives it a range of a few kilometers.

[NullTuples]

15. It's astounding when there are capable consumer products

that someone can literally throw together something like this, spend the hours fine tuning it and then...fly.
That the markets exist to produce the separate components (which are then combined to make a flying bathtub human sized R/C drone) is eye-opening.

[localroger]

16. Yes, doing something like this isn't really that hard today

You need the large motors and high-power motor controllers, but those are commodity, and high enough power battery packs to power them but those are commodity, and there are any number of open source drone control boards you can pick that have all the sensors and the stabilization algos included and all you need to do is tweak the PID control elements because our bathtub probably doesn't respond quite as quick as a handheld drone, and you're golden. I would personally load 200 lb of sandbags in the thing and test it by remote control before trusting it with my actual corporeal bod. And then of course it has no safety backup features, but in this future of wingsuits and extreme everything who's bothered by that?

[NullTuples]

24. Ah, but having the nervesyouthhealth insurance to actually climb aboard....

Now that is NOT a commodity item!

[Aviation Pro]

7. eVTOL flies

With no SVO. Look it up.

[hibbing]

8. This goes right along with the hope thread! n/t

[AllaN01Bear]

9. i got to get me one of these !!!!!!

made my day.


Levilgrin)


/revision/latest?cb=20090729102006

[Fla Dem]

10. What do the drones run on. Gas or batteries?

Pretty neat mode of transportation.

[NullTuples]

13. LiPo battery packs - they're the bricks taped to the motor arms

[Wounded Bear]

11. What? The shop doesn't have a fly through window?

[Faux pas]

12. Love it!!!!!

[Jerry2144]

14. This person

Is my hero.

Rural Engineering at its finest! This is some brilliant work.

[Harker]

30. Beats the balloon-lifted lawn chair.

I guess.

[SCantiGOP]

17. Hope he doesn't get arrested

Pretty sure that violates some law. Flying machines have licensing requirements.
But, what jury would convict him?

[Sapient Donkey]

19. Not sure of the laws in Germany (where I think they're from) but in the US

you're allowed to fly in ultralights without any sort of licensing or certification.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultralight_aircraft_(United_States)

[SergeStorms]

18. I'd like to see him try that...

with an old cast iron claw-foot tub.

[LunaSea]

21. There's an old saying in aviation design...

With a big enough engine, you can fly a barn.

[SergeStorms]

23. Yeah, hence the term "barnstormer".

Just kidding, I'm dense, but not quite that dense.

[leighbythesea2]

22. This made my day

Amazing.

[jmowreader]

25. How do you say "hey, y'all, watch this" in German?

[tblue37]

26. "Hey, you all, vatch dis."

[tanyev]

28. Also "Halte mein Bier".

[Patton French]

27. Brilliant! (n/t)

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

29. All I know is this is obviously not New Jersey.

If it were, the state DEP would have cited him for improper drainage and the local building department would have it condemned for a plumbing code violation.