Up in the air, junior birdman

Have you ever looked at your hairdryer (or the hairdryer of a loved-one) and thought “yeah, make that much bigger, hang it from a crane and I could ride that bad boy!”?  Well if you have, you should’ve patented the idea; it’s too late to do it now, because New Zealand company Fly By Wire have already built a petrol-engined tethered sled that riders can fly around dizzily.

Attached by (hopefully very strong) cables to a point 200 metres above a canyon, riders use the adjustable fan-propeller to steer and control altitude.  A span of 400 metres means there’s a whole lot of airspace to whizz through, launching initially from a near-vertical position and plunging toward the ground.  Rides start at $95 (US) for 25-minutes.

Fly By Wire [via Gadgetopia]