SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Visordown.com reports that the US Military is working with British engineering company Malloy Aeronautics to develop a flying hoverbike to transport soldiers quickly across a battlefield.
A hoverbike powered by a BMW R1200R engine could one day be soaring over the battlefields of the future.
Working alongside a US military research and development firm, the hoverbike could form a new class of tactical reconnaisance vehicle that has more than a touch of the speeder bikes from Return of the Jedi about it.
But this isn't technology from 'a galaxy far, far away' - the Hoverbike can already be seen flying (albeit tethered to ropes).
Malloy Aeronautics said: 'We combined the simplicity of a motorbike and the freedom of a helicopter to create the world's first flying motorcycle. When compared with a helicopter, the Hoverbike is cheaper, more rugged and easier to use – and represents a whole new way to fly.
Related links:
http://www.businessinsider.com/hoverbike-is-like-a-flying-motorcycle-2014-8?op=1
http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/22/us-military-hoverbike/
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 15 2015, @01:59PM
I'd like to introduce you to David Drake, author of the 'Hammer's Slammer's' stories. The soldiers don't deploy on their little scooters - they just get to the action on them. Logistics, you say. Foot soldiers are doing pretty good if they can move 20 miles per day. (Yes, I know that some elite forces have doubled that, I'm just talking "average" infantry.) Horse soldiers can easily triple that. Mechanized infantry MIGHT move several hundred miles in a day, if conditions are right. (Again, elite troops can double that, and more, if conditions are right.)
Troops in the air? They can eat up the terrain! No jets, or rocket engines necessary, just get into the air, where creeks, boulders, trees, and most buildings are no longer a consideration. Let's say top speed is merely 75 mph - in four hours, you've got 300 miles, the company takes a lunch break, then goes another 300, where they have dinner, then mount up for yet another 300 before bivouac.
Discipline keeps them under radar, of course, or the enemy knows where you're going, and will be ready to meet you, IF they don't just blow you out of the sky.
If a soldier goes into combat while still airborne, then he has almost certainly screwed the pooch. Or, the pooch has screwed him. Virtually no one outside of Star Wars has ever envisioned troopers fighting from sleds, or whatever. That's what gun cars and panzers are for on the ground, and choppers, jets, etc up higher.