lad3
Aug 27, 2002, 02:33 PM
I just saw one of these at a local toy store. I can't wait for the Air Hogs ornithopter and heli, and now this! - here is more info:
http://www.modelretailer.com/library/reviews/Specialty/SpecMar02.html#1
Product:Air Surfer/walkalong glider
Manufacturer:WowWee Ltd.
For Tyler MacCready, the release of WowWee's Air Surfer is a dream come true.
It only took nearly 30 years for it to happen.
Rewind to the mid-1970s, and you'll find MacCready, now 39, and his older brother Parker - sons of Dr. Paul MacCready, the scientist who helped develop the Gossamer Condor man-powered aircraft - working on a special concept that eventually became the Walkalong Glider.
Shaped like a hang glider, the Walk-along Glider was a non-powered lightweight flying wing ... so lightweight, in fact, that it flew at walking speed.
It could fly just above your head, on a board the size of an LP record album held in front of you, or simply on your outstretched hands.
"You keep it up by the lift your body creates as you walk forward," MacCready says. "The air has to go around your body, and some of it goes up over your head, so you've got this area of lift and you keep it up under the glider."
The problem? "We couldn't find any toy companies that were interested," MacCready says, adding that AeroVironment - a company his father chairs and that develops unique experimental aircraft - even patented the concept and "presented it to toy companies in the early 1990s. It still didn't work."
All that changed in early 2001 when the Walkalong Glider was featured on an episode of "Scientific American Frontiers," where MacCready showed host Alan Alda how to fly one.
"People from WowWee approached me and said 'We want to do that,'" he says. "They looked like a good group that could distribute more Walkalong Gliders than anyone."
A Hasbro subsidiary, WowWee eventually changed the name to Air Surfer and settled on two versions - one with a 17-inch wingspan that will be specifically for indoors, and one with a 29-inch wingspan and intended for outdoor use. Suggested retail prices are roughly $10 and $20, respectively. The 17-inch version will feature five designs (four of which are pictured), while its 29-inch counterpart will have three.
WowWee officials add that an R/C model of the Air Surfer will be released this fall, and should retail for $59.99. Call 514-344-1250.
Specifications: Air Surfer/walkalong glider.
Suggested retail price: $10 for the 17-inch wingspan and $20 for the 29-inch wingspan.
Reviewed By Gregg Voss
http://www.modelretailer.com/library/reviews/Specialty/SpecMar02.html#1
Product:Air Surfer/walkalong glider
Manufacturer:WowWee Ltd.
For Tyler MacCready, the release of WowWee's Air Surfer is a dream come true.
It only took nearly 30 years for it to happen.
Rewind to the mid-1970s, and you'll find MacCready, now 39, and his older brother Parker - sons of Dr. Paul MacCready, the scientist who helped develop the Gossamer Condor man-powered aircraft - working on a special concept that eventually became the Walkalong Glider.
Shaped like a hang glider, the Walk-along Glider was a non-powered lightweight flying wing ... so lightweight, in fact, that it flew at walking speed.
It could fly just above your head, on a board the size of an LP record album held in front of you, or simply on your outstretched hands.
"You keep it up by the lift your body creates as you walk forward," MacCready says. "The air has to go around your body, and some of it goes up over your head, so you've got this area of lift and you keep it up under the glider."
The problem? "We couldn't find any toy companies that were interested," MacCready says, adding that AeroVironment - a company his father chairs and that develops unique experimental aircraft - even patented the concept and "presented it to toy companies in the early 1990s. It still didn't work."
All that changed in early 2001 when the Walkalong Glider was featured on an episode of "Scientific American Frontiers," where MacCready showed host Alan Alda how to fly one.
"People from WowWee approached me and said 'We want to do that,'" he says. "They looked like a good group that could distribute more Walkalong Gliders than anyone."
A Hasbro subsidiary, WowWee eventually changed the name to Air Surfer and settled on two versions - one with a 17-inch wingspan that will be specifically for indoors, and one with a 29-inch wingspan and intended for outdoor use. Suggested retail prices are roughly $10 and $20, respectively. The 17-inch version will feature five designs (four of which are pictured), while its 29-inch counterpart will have three.
WowWee officials add that an R/C model of the Air Surfer will be released this fall, and should retail for $59.99. Call 514-344-1250.
Specifications: Air Surfer/walkalong glider.
Suggested retail price: $10 for the 17-inch wingspan and $20 for the 29-inch wingspan.
Reviewed By Gregg Voss