Wilcox BOSS Xe
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I Feel Cheated

  

This would have been so cool, but imagine the mid-air collisions.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2015 at 00:05 and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

26 Responses to “I Feel Cheated”

  1. COL REMF says:
    August 22, 2015 at 00:09

    This would have been cool, until resulting in the ultimate “sky shark” experience

    • Weaver says:
      August 22, 2015 at 18:21

      I was going to say – if that ever happened, the “sky sharks” would be chopping off people’s legs all the time.

  2. Mike Nomad says:
    August 22, 2015 at 01:33

    Yeah, the future used to be better. On a sour note, it looks like ALL the money gets spent on the flight rigs: The troops are having to use “Grease Guns”…

  3. PJ says:
    August 22, 2015 at 02:41

    I love the ambition of those old designs. Like the Ithacus rocket. Who doesn’t want to see 1200 Marines in jet packs deploy out of a 20 story ICBM on an inflatable slide?

  4. Sean says:
    August 22, 2015 at 02:50

    We used to do that $h1..t all the time back in the day. Me, SGT Johnny Hopkins, CPT S.Kettering. We called the thing Dad when it was on fire too.

  5. Semper Chad says:
    August 22, 2015 at 02:52

    Saw one of the few remaining at the museum here on Ft. Rucker. Sign me up to test them again.

  6. Matthew Kime says:
    August 22, 2015 at 03:49

    There was another concept… looked like a hovering trash can, and they had functional prototypes…

    Kicking myself for not remembering the name. They featured it once on Beyond 2000 / Beyond Tomorrow.

    • Matt says:
      August 25, 2015 at 20:19

      I believe it was called the WASP. Built by Williams International, who (I think) built Tomahawk cruise missile engines. I saw a video of it at an AUSA expo in DC in the 1980s…still have some 8×10 photos somewhere.

  7. Matthew Kime says:
    August 22, 2015 at 03:57

    Williams WASP X-Jet (video at link)

    http://amazingstuff.co.uk/technology/amazing-hover-machines/#.Vdfyz7eiefc

  8. Greg says:
    August 22, 2015 at 04:57

    Looks like the pilots got a pogo stick to rest their feet on.

  9. Sam says:
    August 22, 2015 at 15:09

    One of the prototypes of this is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center (Annex of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum) by Dulles Airport in the DC area for anyone that wants to see it.

  10. Wardog 1-7 says:
    August 22, 2015 at 15:26

    Reminds me of something from the old GI Joe cartoon series.

  11. mark says:
    August 22, 2015 at 16:12

    I feel like this could be done with a self-driving autonomous Gyrocopter. The computer program would link up with the other copters in flight to prevent mid air collisions, and then return to base once the soldier has disembarked.

    Now, whether it should be done is a different story ; )

  12. Bill says:
    August 22, 2015 at 16:23

    But what camo scheme would go best?

  13. Disco says:
    August 22, 2015 at 19:46

    And this is why Cobra is beating us

  14. Jose says:
    August 22, 2015 at 23:14

    Man, imagine all the damn joes screaming at each other to get the fuck out of the way, they do that now with chutes imagine that with personal choppas..

    Get to the choppas!!!

  15. Tim says:
    August 23, 2015 at 04:11

    I have one of these for my old G.I Joe toys

  16. Gordon says:
    August 23, 2015 at 04:36

    Reminds me of the scene in the movie “Wizard of Oz” when the wicked witch sends her flying monkeys to get Dorthy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE_jGNB0WFw

  17. blehtastic says:
    August 24, 2015 at 00:07

    Is this foreshadowing for a Martin jetpack press release?

    http://www.martinjetpack.com

  18. JS says:
    August 24, 2015 at 12:16

    I’m certain Dr. Quest could make this viable!!

  19. TomM says:
    August 24, 2015 at 13:15

    Hmm since everything now is quad rotor craze, why not build it with a quad rotor set and maybe a pilot+two man carry capacity…

  20. FLC says:
    August 24, 2015 at 14:54

    The entire 82nd converted to MC-1-1B parachutes in 1980.
    huge mid air collision problems. just imagine this concept…..