Sydney’s hoverbike visionary looks for partner
Sydney’s hoverbike maker is in search of a partner to get things moving along; or should that be ‘moving up’?
I was reminded of the Malloy Hoverbike by the news that American company, Aerofex, has conducted flight tests on its own version. Aerofex seems to have jumped ahead of Malloy who, thus far, has only managed tethered tests of his dual-propeller bike. Not an enormous surprise as Aerofex has resources not available to our local pioneer.
Malloy is based in Hornsby, in Sydney’s north, and is seeking a partner:
A real partner in the project, this includes helping with design and fabrication, revenue sourcing and testing. You would need to be capable of mechanical design and fabrication – aluminium and carbon fibre (carbon fibre not necessary as long as you have the fabrication skills – I can show you the rest)
I need to make parts test etc, and just do not have the time nor money to outsource. I work on this almost entirely by myself, so it would be good to have another person working side by side, if even just for the motivation it provides. I cannot pay you, but depending on what you can bring to the project, appropriate shares in the company.
Malloy is also looking for funding. He’s showing $75,000 in donations at the moment – which has him a long way to go to reach his $1.1M funding goal.
The whole hoverbike thing looks so cool and it’s possible we’re seeing a Wright brothers moment in personal flying in our own Sydney backyard. If you’ve ever seen the Star Wars scene where they fly hoverbikes through the forests of Endor you can only think this looks like fun. Whether it is practical is a whole different kettle of fish. In spite of the obvious press about hoverbikes replacing cars, Malloy’s own site lists the fare more practical applications of:
- Aerial Cattle mustering
- Search and Rescue
- Aerial Survey
- Wildlife and Parks
- Film
- Power-line Inspection
Without having to worry about fitting the bike into a car lane, I do wonder why the designs are not more like the fabulous Parrrot Drone toys, which seem amazingly stable and versatile with their four propellers: I’m sure there are reasons. There are also, probably, reasons why a bike that’s estimated to reach a ceiling of 10,000 feet doesn’t have a seatbelt as far as I can see: Makes my acrophobia kick in just to think about it.
If you are a daredevil with a head for heights, or an interest in this sort of engineering, full details on the hoverbike, and how to get involved, are on hover-bike.com.
Image credit: Malloy Hoverbike.