September 6, 2002

9:32 AM

Aviation inventor and innovator Paul MacCready's son, Tyler, invented the Walkalong Glider, which is a glider that flies from the air that your body (hands, head, etc.) pushes up as you walk behind it, to give the glider lift. WowWee, a division of Hasbro, has bought the rights to Tyler's invention and is mass producing and marketing them as the Air Surfer, coming to a toy store near you soon! Check out the commercial (5.4Mb) to see it in action, or check out the training movies.
I have got to get me one!
posted by Sal Amander (9 comments total)

Dear God, the commercials and training videos are painfully annoying. Cool concept, however, though it seems the bizarre facial expression is a prerequisite for proper usage.
posted by Danelope at 9:42 AM on September 6, 2002

I wanna go back and change my MeFi username to "Aerodynamic Dan"

awesome toy, btw.
posted by GeekAnimator at 10:07 AM on September 6, 2002

awesome toy, btw.

Is it? Seems like a one trick pony. The only toys that are this simple that still manage to have long term appeal are toys for more than one person, like a frisbee or a baseball. Unless they show that you can do stuff with it other than just walk around with it over your head, I doubt kids are going to get too excited about it.
posted by badstone at 10:47 AM on September 6, 2002

So I'm guessing there's no way to use this outside, as the slightest breeze would send it sailing away. If it weren't for that, it would be cool. Sadly, most folks don't have the space for this inside.
posted by frykitty at 11:35 AM on September 6, 2002

What would be really nice is if they could combine the airsurfer with a bicycle. Like a hanglider that you could use for commuting. That I would buy.
posted by DenOfSizer at 11:53 AM on September 6, 2002

The CIA is already using stealth versions of these to monitor potential terrorists.
posted by Dr. Boom at 12:41 PM on September 6, 2002

What a disappointment... I clicked on the link thinking that it was a mass-market hang-glider, but it's just a dinky lil' wing that flys above you head.

Notable design for the aero-stuff, but as a toy or anything else? Not yet.
posted by hobbes at 12:45 PM on September 6, 2002

I bought, for about $5.00US, a set about two months ago for my son... yeah; go with that. In fact, they're about 5 feet away from me as I type this.

Anyhow, IMNSHO they mostly suck. I mean, unless you're indoors with a large open area you really can't do much more than walk or run behind them in straight line. If it starts to get too far out of range from you or you're outside and some wind picks up, you end up running around like a nut trying to get the stupid flying wing back on track. And try as I might, I've yet to be able to get them to do any sort of tricks (loops, etc). To me they're more trouble than they are worth.

One time, however, I just tossed one into the wind out of frustration and it rode that current of air for about 5 minutes. That was cool
posted by crankydoodle at 2:32 PM on September 6, 2002

Hey cranky, the glider does sound lame, but you got $5 worth of entertainment or maybe your friends and family got the entertainment watching you run around.
posted by monkeyman at 3:32 PM on September 6, 2002