A random thought about how to make it fly...

[kresty]

I was daydreaming and was wondering about how to make it fly.  Seems like there are two possibilities: lighter than air, and powered.

Lighter than air seems pretty impossible, but.... I wonder...

For powered some folks had mentioned quadrocopters of course.  I imagine it'd be possible to get some sort of shell like folks have done with about everything else, but... it seems like those would impact the shape a lot.

So:  What about a quadrocopter with a transparent rod maybe 3 feet long, and suspend it below that?  Maybe then you could get some motion like the movie and still keep the illusion going a bit?  Maybe even do the air-puff thing on the ball to get it to move a bit more abruptly than the quadrocopter would move it?

Suspended from a ceiling or gantry also seems possible, but if it's just string, then how do you get those movie-like motions from it?

Anyway, just brainstorming.

[Murasaki]

Have like a hollow ball with two fans on top of one another ... I know what I mean ... give me a minute

[Murasaki]

Thank You Google and Youtube ... this is something I can see in my head, but with 1 motor

Spherical Flying Machine Developed by Japan Ministry Of Defense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA

[kresty]

Yea, that's kinda like what Savage described - but they aren't a solid sphere. Some coworker has something like that that rolls around the ceiling and stuff.

[kresty]

So, Trooper_Trent on the RPF posted his old floating version & said I could share here...  Pretty cool!