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Michael Browning:
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engineer,
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innovator --
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inventor really,
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and inspiring father.
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He had a passion for flight,
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as you can kind of sense
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from that rather dubious
1970s [office-leaving present,]
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and some 40 years after that was created,
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a small group of us got together
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to have a go --
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a run at the whole challenge of flight
that inspired people for years,
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and do it in a very different kind of way.
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And that's the journey I'd like
to share with you now.
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The starting hypothesis was one
of the human mind and body --
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as you've seen for the last few days here,
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is an amazing construct --
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and what if you augmented
that wonderful machine
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with just the right technology?
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If you approach flight
in that kind of [real] way,
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where could you get to?
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So my training partner here
back in London --
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[Denton] --
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is doing a much better job
of that kind of stuff than me.
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[Guess what, it's London].
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The idea was that you augment that.
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And so, how do you augment that?
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Well, we bought one of these.
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So this is a micro gas turbine.
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This was ground zero.
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That little piece of [gear]
proved really quite impressive,
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so we got two in a field.
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The real hero here, by the way,
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right in the background,
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there's a lady tending some vegetables.
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She does a brilliant job
of trying to ignore us for a while --
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(Laughter)
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I think the only thing
less happy is the grass
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that we did probably damage quite badly.
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You get an idea of the thrust here
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when I try to hold them horizontally
and somewhat fail.
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That's around 50 kilos of thrust there.
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We were quite impressed with that.
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We thought, we're getting somewhere.
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So there's only one sensible way
to go from there ...
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you get four.
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(Laughter)
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[I have.... a lot] watching these back.
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So, then we thought well, let's try
and spread the load a bit.
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The legs are designed
to take the load,
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so why don't we spread it out a bit?
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That bit was good.
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The harness --
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a nice idea but it didn't really work,
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as you'll see now.
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This whole journey was very much
about trying things --
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(Laughter)
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Yeah, it really didn't work, did it?
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Trying things and learning
by failing at them most of the time.
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And that included failing by falling over.
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If you notice,
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we've got five engines here --
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not to be put off by the fact
one was in [maintenance...],
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and then I --
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(Laughter)
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And then I pinched a fuel line.
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So again, good learning,
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we learned not to do that again.
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This was a blind alley.
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(Laughter)
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This was three on each arm --
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that was ridiculous.
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That was 70 kilos on each arm.
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Again, struck that one off.
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(Laughter)
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But we were starting to make
some really quite convincing progress,
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just enough to make you
believe that maybe --
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maybe we could get there.
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You can see,
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look --
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tantalizing.
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The model of one on each leg
and two on each arm,
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on paper that was enough thrust.
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And then we did what
I'm about to show you now,
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and I still love watching this one.
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This was our first six-second,
reasonably coherent flight.
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(Applause)
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That was the point where this
endeavor went from
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"I'm really not sure
this is going to work,"
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to "Oh my god, it does work."
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From there on we refined it,
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but we carried on falling over a lot.
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Falling over, like I say, is definitely
the best way to learn.
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After a while we starting
re-refining the layout of all of this.
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You'll see,
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that's stability and control,
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there's no wires there or anything,
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that's a combination of us
refining the technology,
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including the tupperwear box
on the back for the electronics --
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nice step --
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and actually learning
the balance and control.
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I'm now going to save your ears
for the next short piece
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and talk over it,
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because after a while the jet engine
noise is a bit annoying.
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This is only a few weeks ago.
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You can see the stability and control
is really quite nice,
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and I'd like to think this somewhat
validates that starting hypothesis
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that the human mind and body,
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if properly augmented in that way,
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can achieve some pretty cool stuff.
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I'm not looking at --
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I'm not thinking about where
I'm moving my arms at that stage.
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I'm looking at the objective
of where I want to get to,
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and a bit like riding a bike,
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my arms are just doing their thing.
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It's a very strange experience.
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So where is all this headed?
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I'll talk over this landing --
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I think I land in this one.
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I don't think anybody's going to
go down to Walmart
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or take their kids to school
in any of this stuff for a while,
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but the team at Gravity are building
some awesome technology
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that's going to make
this look like child's play.
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We're working on some things
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that are going to seek to bring
this pretty unusual experience of flight
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to a wider audience,
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beyond the events
and displays we're doing.
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We're even starting to look
for Pilot Two and Three,
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so if there's any volunteers ...
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I've got this vision.
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It's going to sound audacious,
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but hey, let's just stick it out there --
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that one day maybe we can
rise up above a beach,
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fly up and down the coastline of it,
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rise up a little bit higher
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with the safety kit we're working on
to make this achievable.
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Then, low over the horizon,
comes a Hercules with a ramp down,
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and as it comes past you,
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you then start picking up speed
and see if we can intercept --
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from the rear, not from the front,
that would be a mistake --
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and then try and land in the back.
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That's a little way off at the moment.
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But this is also,
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if I take a big step back from this,
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this is also a very
personal journey for me.
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Back to that lovely photo,
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or photo in a picture.
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Sadly, my father took
his own life when I was 15,
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and left an awful lot
of unfulfilled ambition.
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He was a wonderful inventor,
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maverick --
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creator.
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And I'd just like to think
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if it was possible,
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if he was looking down,
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he would be --
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he'd certainly be smiling at some
of the things we've gone and done here,
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I think.
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So, it's really a tribute to him.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)
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I'm probably more nervous about
doing the demo straight after this,
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so yeah,
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I've got a lot of things
to get done today.
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The worst case scenario:
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we don't get a clean start,
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or we get an unplanned failure
while I'm actually flying around,
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but this is why we keep it very low,
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so the worst is I just look like an idiot
and fall on my rear, as I said.
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So you can all enjoy that if that happens.
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(Music)
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(Jet engine)