Around the age of 12, David Meyman tried to make a helicopter out of fence piles and an old lawn mower.
Needless to say, things didn't go well. His new invention could not fly, and he had to repair the fence.
"My upbringing challenged my science... I was always told that nothing was impossible," he said.
Maybe his childhood in Sydney was a little ahead of its time, but as an adult, Mr Meyman has built innovative machines that can really fly.
After selling his online public company, Meyman developed a jetpack and flew around the Statue of Liberty in 2015.
His new machine is called the "Flying Man" and it will look like a flying motorcycle. It will take off vertically and fly at high speed, but small enough to fit into the rear of a pickup truck.
The Airship is just one of the many aircraft projects currently underway.
With hundreds of EVTOL (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing) aircraft currently in development, engineers hope to create a new era of cheap, quiet air transport.
But Mr. Meyman's machines were very different from those planes. His "airship" is not powered by batteries and electric engines, but uses four small jet engines, powered by aviation fuel.
This may seem like a technical step backwards, but for the customers Mr. Mayman considers, only liquid fuel can do it.
He said the military, emergency services and the offshore energy industry all want an aircraft that is fast, compact and can carry heavy weights.
For this, you need aviation fuel, because at a given weight, it stores 20 times more energy than a battery. In other words, in order to provide the required energy, the battery will be too heavy.
"If you want to carry a certain payload, you want the plane to have a certain range and speed, and the only way to achieve that with current technology is to use a turbo engine." The idea for the "airship" stemmed from a collaboration with the U.S. Navy, which was interested in a jetpack for the Navy's special forces Seals.
What they initially wanted was something that could carry a 210-pound (95-kilogram) payload, which became a nearly 300-pound (135-kilogram) payload shortly after the project progressed. They want to be able to really train a driver in 10 minutes.
None of this was possible in existing jetpack products — something bigger and easier to fly was needed, hence the Airship program.
Some jetpack technology is helpful for this new project, but a lot of it needs to be developed from scratch.
To simplify the problem, the thrust direction on the jetpack is mechanically controlled by the pilot on the aircraft, and the angles of the four jet turbines are controlled by an electronic flight control system.
A key part of the system is custom software that understands the physical characteristics of four very powerful jets. This means that when the pilot takes off or turns, the "overspeed vehicle" can adjust the injection angle to achieve this goal.
Mr. Mayman said the owner doesn't necessarily need a pilot's license because the flying control system of the "flyer" has done a lot of work to keep the aircraft stable.
"It's an effective AI (artificial intelligence) that is able to understand what the vehicle will need ... So it can start instructing the engine to turn up or down," Meyman said.
If the pilot encounters unusual weather conditions, or unusual wind conditions, or unusual operations of the pilot, artificial intelligence is essential in terms of auxiliary control.
Mr. Meyman hopes the flying car will eventually be used to transport cargo. He believes that remote control or autonomous driving will have special needs, especially from the armed forces or emergency services.
With a top speed of about 200 miles per hour and a flight time of up to 60 minutes, it can very quickly provide the necessary supplies for the army or emergency services, delivered where they need them.
In remote-controlled cargo mode, it will be able to fly at a much faster speed, perhaps up to 500 miles per hour, and carry a weight of 450 kilograms.
Due to its small size and ability to fly in all weather conditions, it has the potential to become an aircraft that is more versatile than a helicopter.
But before you get excited about dropping the bus and getting on the "flying car" to go to work, Mr. Meyman says it's unlikely that the "flying car" will fly over the city.
"We make noise and take up space. I don't think it's necessary to have an airplane the size of a kitchen table in an urban air traffic space. ”
Crucially, more testing is needed before it can be delivered to any customer. A third full-scale prototype, called the P2, is preparing to fly within a test range of about two hours east of Los Angeles.
Meyman said the "airship" could go on sale in late 2024 or 2025 if all goes according to plan, though the military may start flying earlier.
Unsurprisingly, all his engineers wanted to be the first to fly an airplane in the desert, but Mr. Meyman kept that excitement to himself.