A round-up of this week's gadgets
Flying Hovercraft
This is just the sort 007-esque diversion you might need if you’ve just bagged the lottery or your great aunt has surprised you with her last will and testament perhaps. It’s a hovercraft that flies. And it seems just as mad as that sounds. Thanks to a turbo-charged 130hp engine and a pair of lightweight wings, it can shoot along terra aqua or firma and then “fly” over obstacles that get in the way. Now when they say fly, they really mean an extended hop, albeit an impressive one as it’s claimed it can clear about a 6m (20 ft) obstacle or perhaps even a little more if your speed’s right. And you’re feeling lucky.
A 1,110 rpm fan does the work under the hover skirt to get it up and hovering, with the forward thrust coming from a 1.5m (5 ft) propeller.
It can tackle water of course, as well as sand, mud, grass, snow . . . and swamp, if the local habitat obliges. Fully fuelled, it’s got a range of about 250km (155 miles), so plenty of the world would be your oyster. First, however, before you get airborne, there is the small matter of raising the readies.
$190,000 (€147,000), from Hammacher.com. Special conditions and guarantee limitations apply, so you'll need to talk to them direct before indulging your inner Bond.
VSTR Nomadic Pack
Founded by many-times world surf champion, Kelly Slater, VSTR is a new surf-travel-lifestyle label with an attractive, oh-so-cool attitude and a line of clothes and accessories to match. The vowel-light name is pronounced “visitor” and the Nomadic Pack is a collaboration with New York design house, Partners & Spade.
Positioned for the adventure traveller, its rugged waxed canvas fabric looks better the more rough and tumble it gets, as well as being water repellent. Plenty of pockets and storage beckon the modern nomad, though a little of it is already taken up with its own lightweight, stowable hammock. Now you’ve just got to find yourself a couple of four-star trees.
VSTR’s anti-perspirant aspiration is that each of its garments can be worn three days in a row “without raising an eyebrow”, so the spacious Nomadic Pack offers a couple of weeks of travel on that basis. Though the pickier packer may look for a more frequent costume change or risk being labelled a STNKR.
$395 (€305), from partnersandspade.comand VSTR.comfrom next month.
Contigo Autospout Water Bottle
Contigo has carved itself a useful niche between waterbottles and vacuum flasks for the athlete, the outdoorsy or simply for the practical traveller. Apart from its smart designer lines, Contigo’s creative energy has been focused on making it easier to drink on the go, particularly to banish wrestling with tricky caps and the inevitable resulting spills: nobody wants a wardrobe that’s straight out of washing powder advertising central casting. Oh, I love what you’ve done with those splashes of cranberry juice.
Contigo’s latest spark of innovation is the Autospout top which pops up a no-spill drinking spout at the press of a button. One hand’s all that’s needed, no biting, and it’s dishwasher safe, so you know it can be kept healthily clean too. And the bottle itself is vacuum insulated, so your cold drink stays cold for up to 20 hours. This is the stainless steel Sheffield, but there are lots of others in the range, as well as flasks for hot drinks too.
€30, from good outdoors stores.