By Dave Stafford, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
ANDERSON, Ind. — “You don’t see something like that every day,” seventh-grader Tristan Dixon said Tuesday, after he and his classmates got a firsthand look at the future.
In this case, it was the Vertiscooter. The gasoline-powered personal hovercraft was one of a handful of cutting-edge inventions that Anderson entrepreneur Pete Bitar brought to demonstrate to students of Anderson Preparatory Academy on their aerospace day.
A line formed to take a ride on the Vertiscooter after school Commandant Robert Guillaume expertly glided the stand-up hovercraft to a stop mere feet from cadets watching the demonstration outside the school.
“That was pretty cool,” Guillaume said. ”It was excellent,” ninth-grade English teacher Brenda Maxfield said after her ride. And when science teacher Anita Burt stepped off, she said, “It was awesome. ... I can really see that being the future.”
Bitar was invited to speak to students who had just completed aerospace projects on which they had worked together over the last month. Before demonstrating the Vertiscooter, Bitar had shown cadets inventions that are in the field, contracted to the Defense Department.
On the gym wall, he shone handheld lasers that are in use by U.S. soldiers staffing checkpoints in Iraq and elsewhere. Their light — by design — can be blinding.
Bitar, who has been featured in programs on the History Channel and the Discovery Channel, then walked to an innocent-looking briefcase sitting on a tabletop.
“This has no practical application,” he said, then caused the briefcase to burst forth a small, continual, controlled burst of electrical lightning whose zapping sound was worthy of Nikola Tesla.
The captivated cadets let out a continual, controlled “wow.”
“I’ve always been a sci-fi nut,” Bitar told the students. “You can see how things really could be if you used your imagination.”
He urged students to look to those who are doing challenging, technical work in the fields they are interested in. “Learn how they do things, learn how they process things.”
APA aerospace teacher Natalie Carter met Bitar through a firm she operates, NRC Business Development Consulting, and invited him to speak at the school.
“They don’t have to be 30 or 40 years old to have an invention,” Carter said. “They can do it now. ... His inventions, they’re awesome. And he’s doing it right here in Anderson.”
Bitar told students that invention doesn’t always involve a bolt from the blue. “Some of what you have to do is build on technologies that exist today,” he told students.
By that standard, seventh-grader Shane Jones was already thinking about the next generation after watching the Vertiscooter in action.
“I’d probably put some wheels on it,” Jones said. “And make sure it’s Earth-friendly.”
