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This weekend I purchased some helium from Balloon
works (Kew, UK) to inflate the Flying Saucer that the New Sci people gave me as a leaving gift (see blog#3307474).”
Under the balloon hangs the turbofan unit: two fans you power forward or back independently with a remote control. You add putty to the fan unit to give the saucer neutral buoyancy (or as close to it as you can get).
The first instinct is to go full throttle and send the saucer across the room as fast as possible, and then send it into a high speed spin. After that it’s more interesting… you use small bursts of fan power
and then watch how the saucer reacts, another small burst of power to adjust the saucer.. and so on… until it reaches some goal (buzzing the dog, trying to get the saucer round a slalom course, etc etc).
It’s fun. More pictures to follow.