I'm not a great businessman, but I like to make sales. My dad was a salesman, and he used to say, "Son, nothing happens until somebody makes a sale." Granted, he might have been a bit biased, but there's some truth to what he said, eh?
Org & Business Structure
Non-profit to hold IP
Non-profit to hold IP and coordinate R&D.
Businesses in the (real) Cloud
The Non-Profit Foundation can license the tech to for-profit businesses to apply?
I have no real clue about all this at this stage.
Progression of Applications
Toys
cardboard tubes and rubber bands
toy drones, kits
1) A thin plastic disk that has flanges on both sides so you can attach two toilet paper tubes perpendicular to the disk (along its axis of rotation.) There would be a notch in the edge of the disk so you can lay a rubber-band in there and wind it around the tubes close to the disk to provide launch power. One piece, could be printed, user supplies tubes (and maybe band?)
2) For paper towel tubes you could have a center plastic band slightly larger than the tube and about a centimeter wide, with a little hook for the rubber-band. You would have end-caps that provide lateral stability. Printable.
3) Small toy drones basically like regular toy drones except with tubes instead of propellers. (Although a few propellers for thrust might work, many designs will rely solely on tubes.)
Drones (non-toy)
litterbots
cargo
fire-brigade
survey
power generation
systems modeled on social insects
Luxury Yachts
small batches and Unique
"New Age of Air"
Heavy Lifters
very large (mile-wide) cellular design
million-person transport
permanent aerial structures
Misc.
The cardboard tubes and rubber bands toys are meant to:
spread the ideas and establish brand
sales to generate early income
inspire people
The small toy drones:
allow for kids to enjoy more sophisticated machines
a path to real-world applications
rapid prototyping w/ low overhead
platform for Joy code/UI
tuning the software (both onboard and physics-sim-to-real-world mapping)
Drones (large, automated but monitored in real-time)
cheap, robust, standardized, motor+rotor units
swappable battery backs, fuel cells
Simple Paper Towel Tube Toy
(TODO: Clean this up, expand it, add photos and video, and post it to Instructables or something?)
If you want to play with the Magnus effect here's a simple toy you can make:
You need:
a cardboard tube from a roll of paper-towels
a plastic lid from a coffee can or margarine tub or whatever
a large rubber band or two
Stand the tube in the center of the lid and draw a circle around it with a marker.
Carefully cut slots in the center of the lid to form a kind of asterix shape. The idea is to have "pizza slices" that will bend out and hold the tube when you push it through the center of the lid.
Push the tube through the center of the lid so that the cut triangle-wedges of the plastic lid bend and hold it in place. Move the lid to the center of the tube and carefully balance the whole thing as best you can. Then tape the plastic wedge fingers to the tube.
Cut a little rounded notch in the edge of the lid to catch the rubber band.
