Strap-On Helicopter Could Offer Solo Flying Experience

Technologia Aeroespacial Mexicana (TAM), the company behind the Libelula strap-on helicopter, explains on its Web site how the device is powered by two hydrogen fuel canisters. Tiny rockets at the tips of the helicopter´s rotor blades take the place of a tail rotor, a component which couldn´t be safely attached to a human body. According to the company, the Libelula would be the lightest helicopter in the world, so light that it could be strapped to a person´s body with a carbon fiber corset.

"The best [part] of this technology is that [these] kinds of helicopters don´t need a tail rotor because they don´t have any torque, so with a simple vane they can turn - being the simplest form of an helicopter and the easiest and safer to fly," the company says on its Web site.