Flight of the Puffin

So what do NASA aerospace engineers do in their spare time? Dream up some wild ideas…

Lovers of Jetpacks and the Jetsons will love this – it is called the Puffin – it is an electric powered tilt rotor vertical take off personal aircraft. Powered by a 60 horse power electric motor – it supposedly will go 149 miles (240 kilometers) an hour and climb to as high as 30 thousand feet or 9 thousand meters.

NASA’s Mark Moore unveiled his concept at the American Helicopter Society Meeting. The Pentagon might like Puffin for stealthy special ops missions. But will it be the solution to endless traffic jams? Who knows…but it would be one way to rid yourself of those pesky backseat drivers.