In late October, Thomas Senkel of e-volo completed the world’s first manned flight of an electric multicopter on an airstrip in the southwest of Germany. The flight lasted one minute and 30 seconds. Of the flight, the constructor and test pilot said, “The flight characteristics are good-natured. Without any steering input it would just hover there on the spot.” The video after the jump shows how simple and nimble this aircraft is, using a yoga ball as landing gear stabilized by spidery arms. That the e-volo multicopter’s flight resembles the takeoffs of alien spacecraft in sci-fi movies – it’s able to turn on a dime as it rises into the air.
