Rig Ma Role #2

Here's the second ski set in place ~ noting that the chamfer on the PVC skirting that is used in this way should be on the outside edge in order to impress with those hand-brake turns.

This ski can be fixed initially by driving four screws in from above, prior to setting the craft upright to complete both means of attachment.

The beam incidentally is narrower here as there need be no provision for downdraught from any lift-fans.

We're talking pedigree cats.

Rig Ma Role #1

If you're working in timber as here, this is how we'll mount the chassis on the skis. I was going to fix it at mid-height but the advantage of aligning it with the top-side is that there will be fewer parts involved: these can eventually be hung with three-way tube connectors at this point.

In view of the fact you cannot drive a pin into each leg from the side as it stands, fix this first leg with angle brackets instead for the moment.

Indielogo

I receive another anonymous email:

You bastard. I printed your so-called logos off and now I need a new print cartridge!!!

I felt your pain, as would anyone walking in knock-down red-neck shoes, Floyd.

Accordingly, the magic of AI provides us with a marvellous cut-out!

Get a life.

C.

Flat-Cat ®

As I spin off inhabited vehicles from among the tentacles of TELEDRONE I feel it is time for a fresh start, and notice the trade-mark FLAT-CAT is still a part of our vast intellectual property portfolio.

I run it by Saatchi in London and ask them to brainstorm a brand, and like what I see.

Accordingly it will feature as the figurehead on every prototype and beta-test going forward (which is good, because as it can't go backward).

Within days I receive an email from an unnamed staff member at the Cats Protection League:

You are a sick, sick, sick individual.

Staff Member

cats.org.uk

p.s. Thanks for the donation.

Legless in Seattle

I've appointed my old mate Doug Bader as test-pilot for the 2025 flying season.

Doug tragically lost his legs and a thumb flying in one of my vertical take-off drones, and has been kicking around like a lost soul ever since (Ed. How does a lost soul kick without legs? Sharpen your pencil or you'll never work in this blog again.)

Commenting on his appointment, Captain Bader said "Bollocks."

He was supposed to say. "I'm delighted to have been given the opportunity to power TELEDRONE into the 21st Century, tho' I could have used a salary."

"Doug... You're fired."

Fast Fashion... ing.

To make a start on the 'captain's cabin' I've drawn upon material leftovers to concoct a form of canoe, or safety cell. It's like a Formula One safety cell, but nearer Formula Thirty-Five.

Ordinarily this would be assembled from plastic or composite extrusions joined with three-way tube-connectors, but they come more expensive than the stuff lying around on the garage floor. In fact the tube-connector salesman called only the other day: I think they're missing me.

The cross-bars will terminate at the uprights which form the space-frame supporting skis on the underside, and prows and motor-mounts elsewhere.

In fact the only thing curved on this boat are the skis, and even they are stored flat. We're talking IKEA on ice, the boat deconstructed to the point Jacques Derrida wants a ride in one.

It was I think for my 14th birthday that I awoke to find a canoe in the lounge, and here I am fifty years on planning to sit in one driven by air.

When the Fun Stops, Start.

I always begin (and have always begun) with a sketch. Whether or not such an outline as this is ever used for sea-going drones, it's unlikely to be me that's involved.

So instead of kidding myself this could ever be a corporate venture, let's put a dummy and give it an outing on the water... and then walk away.

Its advantage of over the conventional is that it disconnects the hull from the planing surface, with what sits at the centre like a four-poster adaptable  to any length of ski.

So that while doubling the length of existing boats increases materials and complexity disproportionately, here it doesn't.

Ray Kurzweil says in his documentary 'Transcendent Man' describes how he designs for the direction in which technology is evolving.

And with electrical motors evolving and linked to ever larger airscrews, their advantage over water-screws used as here will become self-evident.

Whether I'll be there to see it is something else. Either way it's unlikely to happen here  in the UK, where ideas go to die.

Though it may yet be worth an outing on a crowd-funding platform in the US, suitably adapted for human beings.

For drones inspire few, but kill many.