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jnuts
New member
This is a personal favorite of mine. Two pictures are shown. The first one is a side few from the patent drawings. The second picture is a company promotion picture of the device in flight. For those who like wierd stuff, this fits the bill. I've seen a video of this thing in flight... and it's really cool.
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Excerpt from Armed Forces Journal, December 1972 "Marines Push "Flying Belt Idea"
Always ready to do something for the grunt, the Marines, with an assist from industry initiative, are experimenting with the answer to the Arabian Nights' Magic Carpet. Civilian models have flown already; a greater capability military version my fly next summer.
The operational concept and the vechicle resulting from the requirement is known as STAMP, an acronym for Small Tactical Aerial Mobility Platform. In concept, STAMP is similar to the famous jeep, low level transportation in the three wars. STAMP will have a payload of 500 pounds plus the driver. There will be room for one passenger. Its speed will be 60 to 80 knots and will have a 30 minute flight duration or a 30 mile range.
Heart of the WASP is the williams WR-19-2 mini-jet billed as the world's smallest fan-jet engine. It is 12 inches in diameter, 24 inches long, weight 67 pounds and produces 430 pounds of thrust - enough to propel rider, vehicle, fuel, and engine
For the Marine STAMP program Williams is developing the WR-19-9 engine of greater thrust and growth potential/ While the -2 model has only a 1.2:1 bypass ratio of air impelled outside the engine by the fan to air going inside the jet turbine, the 130 lb -9 model will have a 5:1 bypass ratio and give 570 lbs of thrust. Growth potential to 850 pouns of thrust exists in the engine, according to the engineers. However, the Marines feel they need around 1,000 punds for the missions they forsee and still another more advanced model my be required to power a production vehicle.
Inital Marine Funding is $1.3 million... The contract with Williams buys its proposed two-man WASP airframe and resnts it fan-jet engine.
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End of excerpt... Work continued and in the 1980s, the WASP II was born...This comes part comes from "Turbofan-powered Flying Carpet", Popular Science, September, 1982.
The U.S. Army paid about $2.4 Million for Williams to develop the first two test machines in a quest for greater mobility in the field. Unlike the original Rocket Belts, these are like podiums, each with two-feet-long jet engines positioned waist-high to the "pilot", who simply walks up to the machine, steps on the platform, starts the engine, and flies. Standing upright, he has two controls: a throttle on the right to adjust height and speed, a grip on the left to turn left or right. Pithc in any direction is accomplished by weight shift, as in some hang gliders. Fixed stabilizer fins act like a fixed rudder fin to provide stability. There is an emergency parachute in the top front compartment. It is deployed by an explosive charge like a a shotgun shell that fires a three pound weight. That pulls the chute.
The machine weighs only 245 pounds and carries 150 pounds of fuel, making it reasonably portable. The test platform has no fuel gauge.... "Right now we have only flown it at heights of 60 to 70 feet," said the test pilot,"because at over 100 feet you lose visual cues, and it's hard to tell how fast you're moving up and down."
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The final outcome? It was tested by he Army and that's where it ended. They went no farther with it.
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Excerpt from Armed Forces Journal, December 1972 "Marines Push "Flying Belt Idea"
Always ready to do something for the grunt, the Marines, with an assist from industry initiative, are experimenting with the answer to the Arabian Nights' Magic Carpet. Civilian models have flown already; a greater capability military version my fly next summer.
The operational concept and the vechicle resulting from the requirement is known as STAMP, an acronym for Small Tactical Aerial Mobility Platform. In concept, STAMP is similar to the famous jeep, low level transportation in the three wars. STAMP will have a payload of 500 pounds plus the driver. There will be room for one passenger. Its speed will be 60 to 80 knots and will have a 30 minute flight duration or a 30 mile range.
Heart of the WASP is the williams WR-19-2 mini-jet billed as the world's smallest fan-jet engine. It is 12 inches in diameter, 24 inches long, weight 67 pounds and produces 430 pounds of thrust - enough to propel rider, vehicle, fuel, and engine
For the Marine STAMP program Williams is developing the WR-19-9 engine of greater thrust and growth potential/ While the -2 model has only a 1.2:1 bypass ratio of air impelled outside the engine by the fan to air going inside the jet turbine, the 130 lb -9 model will have a 5:1 bypass ratio and give 570 lbs of thrust. Growth potential to 850 pouns of thrust exists in the engine, according to the engineers. However, the Marines feel they need around 1,000 punds for the missions they forsee and still another more advanced model my be required to power a production vehicle.
Inital Marine Funding is $1.3 million... The contract with Williams buys its proposed two-man WASP airframe and resnts it fan-jet engine.
------
End of excerpt... Work continued and in the 1980s, the WASP II was born...This comes part comes from "Turbofan-powered Flying Carpet", Popular Science, September, 1982.
The U.S. Army paid about $2.4 Million for Williams to develop the first two test machines in a quest for greater mobility in the field. Unlike the original Rocket Belts, these are like podiums, each with two-feet-long jet engines positioned waist-high to the "pilot", who simply walks up to the machine, steps on the platform, starts the engine, and flies. Standing upright, he has two controls: a throttle on the right to adjust height and speed, a grip on the left to turn left or right. Pithc in any direction is accomplished by weight shift, as in some hang gliders. Fixed stabilizer fins act like a fixed rudder fin to provide stability. There is an emergency parachute in the top front compartment. It is deployed by an explosive charge like a a shotgun shell that fires a three pound weight. That pulls the chute.
The machine weighs only 245 pounds and carries 150 pounds of fuel, making it reasonably portable. The test platform has no fuel gauge.... "Right now we have only flown it at heights of 60 to 70 feet," said the test pilot,"because at over 100 feet you lose visual cues, and it's hard to tell how fast you're moving up and down."
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The final outcome? It was tested by he Army and that's where it ended. They went no farther with it.
