World's Smallest Private Helicopter

Leonardo da Vinci, the famous painter, was also a great & controversial scientist, whose thoughts and ideas were way ahead of his time, and hence could not be materialised. But his famous notebook drawings from 1493 show an "ornithopter" design with a screw-like rotor, which was actually similar to a helicopter that could actually fly! inspired by Da Vinci's design, Yanagisawa's GEN H-4 was created.

It has no tail, and instead works on twin counter-rotating propellers that cancel out the torque that requires single-rotor helicopters to have a perpendicular tail rotor, and can fly at a maximum speed of 50 kilometres (31 miles) per hour.

Yanagisawa(the inventor)runs a company in Matsumoto, north of Tokyo, where he designed and built this first smallest single-person helicopter that weighs 75 kilos(165 lbs). The 75-year old inventor will make a demonstration flight in the city of Vinci, near Florence, on May 25; and only after a trial run in the dessert, he has already sold five units in Japan and two to US customers.

The cost for one is a reasonable $58,250; with an average flight speed of 31 mph, its still better than most cars! I'd love to fly everyday to work, but that would cause even more problems with flight and aviation department, not to mention the tonnes of helipads that companies would need to build!! Well, maybe our grand-kids would see that aspect of the world, but for now, I'm just happy with this single-person private helicopter that can fly me to places catering to my whims!

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