What is (and who makes) this levitating rocket-propelled thingy?

September 21, 2009 3:58 PM

Help me find a video of a levitating rocket-propelled platform.

I'm trying to locate a video I saw a year or two ago that was produced by an aeronautics company as a technology demonstration. The video shows a large cylindrical object launch from the ground, propelled by an array of rockets mounted on its underside. The rockets begin to rapidly pulse keeping the object "suspended" about ten feet in mid-air. The object then activates lateral rockets that allow it to "strafe" left and right in what appears as a very controlled manner. The video ends with the rockets deactivating and the the device falling down to be caught by netting mounted below it.

If I recall correctly, I think the device was some kind of anti-missile technology, and interspersed in the video are example animations of the how the device might work in orbit. I seem to recall the narrator discussing some kind of "bandoleer" related to the device too.

Please help me locate this video!

posted by dendrite to technology (4 comments total)

Here you go.
posted by procrastination at 4:16 PM on September 21 [1 favorite]

At least, I hope that was it.
posted by procrastination at 4:19 PM on September 21

My first thought was one of the Armadillo tests, but p's link is way cooler (and probably vastly more expensive) and probably what you were looking for.
posted by intermod at 4:33 PM on September 21

Super, that was it!

The version I originally saw didn't show it from the three angles, and also had an animation of how it would be applied in orbit, but this video does the job! Thanks.
posted by dendrite at 6:03 PM on September 21