I mean please a one man flying machine for transporting soldiers, technology that would make rich the madmen who had ivented them, so why he didn't sell them instead in the global market get rich and marry a super model huh? senseless imagination is it? It seems that during the 50s and 60s the U.S. Goverment spent considerable resources and time developing these powerful Scouting and observational advantages! Looking to obtain unprecedented freedom of movement for infantryman in the battlefield.
It was the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) who started the resaerch on such technology. After some encouraging results in the laboratory using compressed air, several companies went on to build experimental vehicles. This brief fad of military aviation gave rise to a number of unique contraptions, including such unlikely inventions as backpack helicopters, hovering platforms, and flying jeeps (yes when they say all terrain, they DO mean All Terrain).
Engineer Charles H. Zimmerman, was the man who determined that a helicopter-style vehicle would be significantly more stable if the rotors were mounted on the bottom rather than on top. He also suggested that a human’s innate “kinesthetic control,” would help to keep such a machine upright.
Among the first flying platforms was the HZ-1 Aerocycle from De Lackner. It used a forty horsepower outboard motor to turn two counter-rotating helicopter blades. The two opposing rotors cancelled one another’s torque, allowing the mounted platform to maintain orientation rather than spinning. Directional control was achieved by leaning in the desired direction of travel, with a maximum velocity of 65-70mph more than enough to crack your skull open. A similar prototype was the VZ-1 Pawnee developed by Hiller Aviation, using two 44 horsepower engines, the platform was lifted by two counter-rotating five-foot-wide rotors in a round enclosure, a configuration known as a ducted fan.
The VZ-8 took the all terrain concept to a whole new level, the air. It was built around two ducted fans driven by a pair of 180 horsepower engines. Both power plants were connected to a single central gearbox so that both rotors would continue to turn even if one engine failed. Piasecki designed the airgeep Controls very much like conventional helicopter controls. Although the Airgeep was intended to operate within a few feet of the ground it was also capable of flying at altitudes of several thousand feet. The Airgeep was a very stable weapons platform and could hover or fly around most any obstacle. A larger, more powerful version called the Airgeep II was developed in 1962, and it proved even more capable. Further evaluation of the concept, however, led the Army to conclude that the design lacked the ruggedness and flexibility of conventional helicopters, and that its maintenance demands were too high. The Airgeep was abandoned in the early 1960s.
Later Williams Research Corporation’s WASP (Williams Aerial Survey Platform), later named the X-Jet, was the result of fifteen years of development. With the pilot standing on the fuel tank and a 600-pound turbofan engine mounted in front of him. Performance of the WASP was impressive, with a speed of 60 mph and a service ceiling of 10,000 feet. Maximum flight time was just over 30 minutes. The craft was listed in Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft as late as the 1985 edition but once again the army, which had financed its development, lost interest.
By the 1970s the US military largely abandoned such flights of fancy. Although a one- or two-man light aircraft was an intriguing concept, all of the vehicles shared common weaknesses in regards to maintenance, noise level, vulnerability, and the lack of practical applications. There were also very valid concerns about the stability of the small aircraft in windy conditions. Examples of these unique military aircraft can currently be found at aviation museums all over the country.