World's Smallest Helicopter Ready For a Spin

inventorspot.com ^ | 05/14/2008 | Staff

[Red Badger]

Those of us who've been dreaming of cheap personal air travel in the Buck Rogers, sci-fi jet-pack mode should turn their eyes towards Vinci, Italy on May 25. That's when Gennai Yanagisawa, inventor of the tiny GEN H-4 personal helicopter, will be taking his lightweight 165-pound whirly-gig on a demonstration flight.

Why Vinci? According to the 75-year-old Yanagisawa, "Since the concept of our helicopter came from Italy, I always wanted to take a flight in the birthplace of da Vinci."

Indeed, Leonardo's famous notebook drawings from 1493 show an "ornithopter" with a screw-like rotor. Like da Vinci's pioneering design, Yanagisawa's GEN H-4 has no tail. Instead, twin counter-rotating propellers cancel out the torque that requires single-rotor helicopters to have a perpendicular tail rotor.

The GEN H-4 personal helicopter is actually available for purchase now, though Yanagisawa's company (located in the Japanese city of Matsumoto) has so far sold only six (2 in the USA).

The cost for one is a reasonable $58,250 and once airborne, the GEN H-4 can fly at a somewhat sedate speed of 31 mph - slow yes, but probably faster than rush hour traffic. Veni, vidi, volanti!

[Tallguy]

I just love it when they point to a Leonardo Da Vinci sketch & say “look Leonardo ‘invented’ thus & such.” Leonardo was a great artist & thinker, but inventing a helicopter without a lightweight powerplant and a proper air foil is just fantasizing. A better word would be ‘conceived’. / engineer rant off

[D-fendr]

And it comes with a framed Darwin Award engraved with your name.

[MindBender26]

Saw the Jesus nut let go on a Huey hovering at about 6 feet once. Spread the skids very badly. Threw one blade through both sides of a duce and a half bed. Never found the other one!

[reagan_fanatic]

No flipping way would I risk my life on that thing.

[Red Badger]

The glide slope is probably pretty steep.......

[Candor7]

Mount a belt fed semi-auto shot gun on that thing, and I might just buy one for Duck Hunting.

It would be fun to use at night in the green zone.

[grjr21]

Never sell. No cup holders.

Put a couple of hard points on there for guns and some optional rocket pods and could do real well :)

[domenad]

As a fellow engineer, those LOLs mean so much.

[fish hawk]

I don’t see a place to put the milk,bread, and dog food. How will I get them home?

[driftdiver]

“31 mph? Pass.”

I think you’d have a hard time passing anything.

[Hacklehead]

World's smallest helicopter? Is it smaller than this?

[jrestrepo]

If I had $60K, I would be there!

[Harold Shea]

"Saw the Jesus nut let go on a Huey hovering at about 6 feet once. Spread the skids very badly. Threw one blade through both sides of a duce and a half bed. Never found the other one! "
Saw two slicks land a bit too close together and their rotors hit each other.Found out those things are made like a honeycomb after being showered with pieces. I took off running and got caught in concertina wire. Took 3 guys to get me out of that wire

[Ole Okie]

Uh oh! No counter-rotating propellers.

[MindBender26]

Also, with the engine suddenly unloaded, it went to lunch after throwing the tail rotor half way to Hanoi!

[20yearvet]

at $353 pluse the cost of gass it is not for me.