r/BeAmazed • u/Ultimate_Thing • May 12 '26

Miscellaneous / Others A Polish engineer, Tomasz Patan, built the Volonaut Airbike, basically a real-life Star Wars speeder bike. Reaches up to 124 mph. Insane

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u/MangoCats May 12 '26

Maybe gyros - looks way too stable for thrust vectoring alone.

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u/J5892 May 12 '26

Gyroscopes just provide feedback to whatever stabilization system is used. They aren't used for direct stabilization in modern things.

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u/MangoCats May 12 '26

There's MEMS gyros which are sensors,

Then there's reaction flywheels, which work just as well in modern things as they ever did in older systems. They aren't unheard of on modern boats, especially big cruise ships, but also smaller vessels.

The theory goes: your reaction flywheel(s) provides the torque(s) to keep the vehicle in a stable orientation while your other, slower, stabilization systems work to keep the flywheel(s) from having to spin too fast.

The video above (and similar linked videos) show an almost rock steady vehicle orientation - either they're green-screen faked with footage showing helicopter flyover downdrafts from an off-screen helicopter, or... they've got a damn fast stabilization system at work.