After putting 30 years of hard work into completing a prototype jet pack, New Zealand's aerospace manufacturer Martin Aircraft may finally be able to take its baby on a test flight with a human pilot. Earlier this week, the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority issued an experimental flight permit for development test flying, which would allow a human pilot to fly the aircraft for the first time ever, as opposed to an operator on the ground with a remote control. If all goes well with test flights, Martin Aircraft says that the first consumer-grade jetpack ever, which can float as high as one kilometer and travel at a top speed of 43 miles per hour, could become available for purchase as early as 2015.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
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5 comments:
I need one of these!
It looks pretty sleek, if big and ungainly, but does it fly?
Gravity's a bitch, isn't it?
It just reinforces the fact that, although it's so easy in fiction (Boba Fett's backpack; Luke's "speeder," the Jupiter II; the Blade Runner cars, etc.) actually getting anything heavy off the ground requires enormous, unbelievable thrust. Look at those engines!
The Apollo spacecraft, in toto, was pretty small...command, service and LM modules...but it took that enormous Saturn V rocket -- the size of the Empire State Building! -- to get it up to escape velocity.
It's a good thing we invented wings (and their cousins, helicopter rotors) rather than having to depend on brute force like in this case.
So you are saying my dreams of the jetpack is silly until they invent a new propulsion source that last longer than a few seconds. I like the water jet pack they invented. That gives you the propulsion you need but you have to be tethered to a boat.
It would make the commute to work more fun, that's for sure.
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