this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2026
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You hope. There's no control surfaces, and only the downward-pointed engine nozzle, so if it starts to tip over from a gust of wind or something there is no way to reorient it. There's also no crash safety.
Its a gyroscope - the forces so long as its running are rather powerful.
A "gust of wind" would have to be powerful enough to overcome those forces. I'm just guessing, but I suspect we're talking hurricane speeds.
Jet engines routinely rotate at many thousands of rpm, and basic force calculations show that speed/velocity are the single greatest energy/force metric as it's influence is a squaring function - V is always represented as V^2 in these formulas.
Its why safety commercials for driving always say "Speed Kills" - mass doesn't change and yet total energy in the system doubles with each single-unit increase in speed.
My point is that there's a helluva lot of gyroscopic stability so long as that engine is spinning. I'd be more concerned about loss of that stability and lift than an outside force pushing it around.