Sick of standing outside the buggy and light-wing aircraft stores — conveniently located side-by-side — pondering which mechanical fun device is more worthy of your dollars? Yeah, I haven’t done that recently either, but if the conundrum ever does present itself, you won’t have to compromise: just pick yourself up a SkyRunner.
At first glance, the 420kg vehicle looks mostly like a buggy. It’s only when you do the full 360-degree tour that the rear propeller becomes clearly evident and if you’re particularly observant, you may notice the small wing-like structures on either side of the chassis.
Speaking of the body, it’s constructed of a glass and carbon fibre composite and houses a one-litre, V4 “EcoBoost” engine with an output of 92kW @ 6000rpm. On land, the SkyRunner’s maximum speed is 185km/h, while in the air it can manage 88.5km/h (wind permitting), though you’ll need to hit 59.5km/h before you can actually take off. It can get up to 15,000 feet (4.57km), but you might have trouble breathing unassisted at that altitude.
Those worried about running into trouble while airborne need not worry, a parachute is built into the buggy so you can float safety to the ground.
All this, including the potential for oxygen deprivation, will set you back $US119,000 and you’ll need to wait until 2014 to see the thing. This, however, isn’t so much of a problem as it’s not mentioned on the website if they’ll even ship it to Australia.