Boeing picks top 10 'thrilling' designs for personal flying machine
SEATTLE - Ten designs for a futuristic "personal flying machine" have made the final cut in the first phase of the Boeing Co.'s GoFly challenge competition.
The top 10 designs, shown in the photo gallery above, resemble everything from an airborne motorcycle to a flying egg. They were selected from more than 600 entries submitted by teams from over 30 countries around the world.
The idea behind the competition is to put excitement back in the quest for human flight by encouraging teams to invent a personal flyer that is not only safe and useful but thrilling to operate. The team behind the final winning design will win $1 million.
Boeing has specified that the personal flyers must be able to carry a person 20 miles without stopping to refuel or recharge batteries.
The 10 finalists were chosen by a panel of 97 industry experts who carefully evaluated each aspect of every submission in accordance with technical guidelines. The pool of judges included chief engineers, flight test engineers, senior technicians, pilots and academics from prestigious universities and aerospace firms.
Each phase one winner gets $20,000 each to continue refining its design. Phase two, which isn’t limited to these 10 flyers, will go beyond designs to judge physical prototypes, with a $50,000 prize to be awarded next March.
The final stage is a fly-off, scheduled for late 2019, with a $1 million prize for the best overall entry, and smaller prizes for the quietest, smallest, and most disruptive innovation.
You can check out the specs for the top 10 designs here ....
