A lot has changed since Larry Walters famously tied helium balloons to his lawn furniture in 1982.
YouTube user gasturbine101 has uploaded a video showing off his lawn chair, newly outfitted with 54 spinning propellers, landing gear, and a thoughtful umbrella in case of inclement weather. The lawn-chair-as-multi-rotor-drone is a surreal-looking vehicle, but it successfully takes off and moves while staying within several feet off the ground.
Enjoy the precarious GIF below:
And here’s the highest he pilots the aircraft in the six-minute demo video:
The flying lawn chair can operate for 10 minutes at a time while carrying up to 360 pounds, enough capacity for its human pilot and then some. The creator writes in the video description that the entire project was “just a bit of fun for myself.”
The rest of gasturbine101’s YouTube channel satisfies all sort of engine- and turbine-related curiosities. In one video, he powers up a jet turbine in his backyard.
Though his dream to free the lawn chair from the shackles of gravity cost him £6,000, a little over $9,000, he writes that he doesn’t ever intend to fly “much above head height.”
H/T 7 News | Screengrab via gasturbine101/YouTube
