The Hiller Hornet Coupe

It's 2004. Where's my personal helicopter?

"The Hiller Hornet... was priced under $5000 and was powered by ramjets mounted at the tip of each rotor blade. Spinning the rotor with either a hand crank or electric motor, the rotor will reach 50 rpm, at which point the ramjets can be fired."

[Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1951]

A chopper with ramjets - cool! I'll take one in red!

See more "Visionary Designs in Transportation Engineering"
at Transportation Futuristics.

Copyright © 2004 The Regents of the University of California.