It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a multicopter

How many propellers does it take to lift a man off the ground? The answer is 16, apparently, if Thomas Senkel is anyone to put stock in, and he obviously is because his multicopter did indeed get off the ground for an entire 90 seconds, which is much longer than Wilbur Wright was in the air at Kitty Hawk. 

It's been more than a century since, of course, so we should be a bit more advanced in our human flight technology. And we are, sort of, with working jetpacks and things. We certainly have more than our fair share of airplanes and helicopters and mass transportation devices. We even have a flying car. But we're a bit lacking in the personal flight category, until now.

Senkel, from Germany, demonstrated his device and its successful maiden flight recently. He used a simple joystick to control the craft, which runs via an electric fly-by-wire system.  The number of blades, 16, is enough to give anyone pause, but you need that many to get enough lift and do enough balancing to make sure that the person doing the flying doesn't end up head-over-heels in a ditch somewhere.

This being the 21st Century, the multicopter is computerized, with onboard devices calculating the exact rotation speed needed to get man and machine up off the ground and hovering in the desired direction. And, just like a helicopter, this one-person device goes up and down to take off and land.

Is it a vision of the future? Probably, if only a precursor. Check out the video here.