Czech companies launch flying bicycle

PRAGUE Is it a bike? Is it a plane?

Three Czech companies have teamed up to make a prototype of an electric bicycle that successfully took off Wednesday inside an exhibition hall in Prague and landed safely after a remote-controlled, five-minute flight.

Looking like a heavy mountain bike, it weighs 209 pounds. It has two battery-power propellers in the front, two in the back and one each on the sides.

A dummy rode in the saddle.

Milan Duchek, technical director of Duratec, a bicycle frames maker, says more powerful batteries will be needed before a human takes a two-wheeled flight.