The Flying Machine

We were driving on Interstate 94 in Michigan and we passed a car pulling this thing. I asked Pops what it was. It looked strange to me. Pops said that he thought it was a flying machine.
I thought it looked like a go cart with a big fan on the back.
We pulled into a rest area and I was walking the dogs when I saw the car come into the rest area. A man got out of the car and went inside the rest area. So I walked down near the contraption and waited for him to come back out.
I asked him what the thing was and he told me that it was in fact a flying machine. You sit in the seat, turn on the engine and the fan and it blows air into the parachute which is attached and laying behind the machine. The more throttle you give the faster it goes until it is airborne. It will go up to speeds of 27mph.
I asked him how to land the thing. He said you just give it less throttle and it will glide downward. He said that it lands pretty smoothly.
He showed me some pictures of other ones that he helped to build and fly. He had never flown this one. He was delivering it to someone who bought it.
He and a friend build and sell them. They cost $6500 which includes lessons.

The flying machine