The Aerofex hover vehicle undergoes flight tests in California's
Mojave Desert.Aerofex The Aerofex hover vehicle recalls the
futuristic look of 'Star Wars' speeder bikes.Aerofex A
resurrected hover vehicle won't fly through dense forests as
effortlessly as the "Star Wars" speeder bikes from "Return of
the Jedi," but its intuitive controls could someday allow anyone
to fly it without pilot training. The aerial vehicle resembles a
science fiction flying bike with two ducted rotors instead of
wheels, but originates from a design abandoned in the 1960s
because of stability and rollover problems. Aerofex, a
California-based firm, fixed the stability issue by creating a
mechanical system — controlled by two control bars at knee-level
— that allows the vehicle to respond to a human pilot's leaning
movements and natural sense of balance. "Think of it as lowering
the threshold of flight, down to the domain of ATV's (all-
terrain vehicles)," said Mark De Roche, an aerospace engineer
and founder of Aerofex. Such intuitiv