Boxers can fly: the BMW-powered Hoverbike

Australian helicopter pilot, Chris Malloy has built a Hoverbike out of a BMW Boxer motor engine.

Malloy used the Boxer motor to piece together his imaginative idea of the Hoverbike. He spent nearly two-and-a-half years developing and designing it.

“The craft has performed exactly as predicted and the BMW Boxer engine has proved itself to be ideal for this application,” he said.

Malloy’s Hoverbike weighs 105kg (when dry) and has a similar style to any other motorcycle, with the pilot sitting in between in bodywork, with all control coming from the handlebars. The right-hand being a normal throttle controlling the power, with another twist-grip controlling the vanes that deflect the thrust to provide forward and backward movements. For turning corners, the handlebars are turned right or left, and to roll; the handlebars are pushed backwards and forwards.

Malloy said: “The Boxer motor was really the only option I considered when I was looking at motorcycle engines that would be suitable.

“The longitudinal crank makes it possible to have power output from either end of the motor as well as having centralised mass. The air/oil-cooled motor, without the need for liquid-cooling and the added weight of a radiator and hoses, is a perfect fit in the craft,” he said.

Malloy finished constructing it and took it for the test flight at Sydney Helicopters, Australia; it lifted a metre off the ground.

“In production form the Hoverbike will have applications such as search and rescue, cattle mustering, aerial survey and powerline inspection – and as a recreation aircraft,” he says.

www.hover-bike.com