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You’ll Be Literally Towed to an Airplane If WingBoard Hits the Market

Ever wondered how wakeboarding in the air would feel like? Chicago-born Aviation Engineer Aaron Wypyszynski did and he spent the last 18 months in designing a functional device to do that. Called the WingBoard, you can literally cruise the air with it while it's being towed to an aircraft.
WingBoard 1 photo
Photo: Screenshots from WingBoard's Youtube Account
Aaron began flying full-scale aircraft at 13, soloed at 16 and has not looked back since. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering and then went on to earn his master’s degree, also in Aero Engineering. When he’s not busy working as a flight test engineer in Huntsville, Alabama, he keeps searching for crazy ideas such as the WingBoard.

Still in the production faze, the device works through a close coupling of the rider, tow rope and the board itself. According to its creator, the best analog is to look at it as a wakeboard in three dimensions. The shape is designed to provide a stable center of gravity when the rider in on board, while maintaining maneuverability.

The rider stands in an upright stance allowing him to lean and twist in all directions, while still maintaining a stable stance to brace against the tow forces. The rider is attached to the board via a binding, providing a flexible connection to the board.

Three phase project

Aaron claims there are three phases of his project, with the first one being completed. Step number one took about 18 months and ended with creating and successfully testing a 1:6 scale concept which is what we see flying in the video below.

The second phase consists on developing a 40% scale model to test and refine all of the safety features, normal operating procedures and emergency procedures and measure the forces on a fully articulated human analog to prove that it is safe enough for anyone to fly. And this is the part where Aaron needs your help on Kickstarter. The last faze should start in the Fall of 2015 and will end up with the full scale prototype.

The Wingboard Kickstarter campaign currently has $2,563 of its $32,000 goal, with 30 days left, which probably means it won’t make it. That doesn’t mean you can’t take a quick look at the video below to get a better grip of it.

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