Flying Motorcycles

A year after it was pronounced airworthy by the FAA, and 14 years after it was first announced, the Samson Sky Switchblade is officially off the ground. This street-legal three-wheeler converts to a 200-mph (320-km/h) airplane at the touch of a button.

After 14 years of development, the Samson Switchblade – a fast, street-legal three-wheeler that converts at the touch of a button into a 200-mph airplane – has been approved for airworthiness by the FAA. The team is now preparing for flight tests.

Jetpack Aviation has debuted a flight-ready prototype of its P2 Speeder, a sleek carbon fiber "Motorcycle of the Sky" that can carry first responders over hundreds of miles and hit speeds of up to 500 mph in autonomous mode.

Looking at today's tech, you might think “pack it in, inventing is finished.” But innovateurs and imagineers need something to do, even when the well of useful ideas is running dry. Here are the oddest and most questionable inventions of 2019.

David Mayman of Jetpack Aviation is fully funded to build a prototype of his latest crazy invention: the Speeder flying motorcycle. We caught up with Mayman for another very fun chat, and learned he's planning to fly into the backs of moving planes.

"We don't know if Lazareth is genuinely intending to test fly this thing," we wrote when we first saw La Moto Volante, "or just present it as a work of art." A new video answers that question pretty comprehensively, as it shows this beast taking off and achieving a stable hover on tethers.

If somebody tells you they're building a flying motorcycle, it's probably appropriate to reply "yeah, right." But if that somebody is jetpack guru David Mayman, it's worth your while listening, because Mayman has some seriously impressive achievements under his belt.

Jetpack Aviation has leap-frogged its own flying car project with the announcement that it's taking pre-orders now on a self-stabilizing, jet turbine-powered flying motorcycle capable of 150 mph speeds, 20 minute endurance and 15,000 ft altitudes.