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World's first commercially available Jetpack goes on sale
- ahi 17y agoGlad I'm not paying that insurance bill.
- jrockway 17y agoWhy? A 1000 foot fall is much cheaper to treat than cancer. (Step 1: scrape up organs. Step 2: incinerate them.)
- RyanMcGreal 17y agoThat settles it. I'm trading in my Segway.
- proee 17y agoAre there any videos of a full flight? I only saw an indoor test flight. Wondering what happens when you get a strong wind - a good control system is going to be needed to keep the thing from total failure.
- jknupp 17y agoOnly commercial orders for now. From the company's site: "Martin Jetpack is currently accepting enquiries from commercial customers. Please place your initial enquiry through this site and we will contact you directly. It is expected that early orders for sales to private individuals will commence late 2010" EDIT: removed [sic] for "enquiries", as MW dictionary doesn't contain it but others do.
- jkent 17y agoThe Darwin Awards just got a whole lot more competitive.
- ShabbyDoo 17y agoI don't see why this is inherently more dangerous than, say, flying a powered parachute. It's really more in the same class as a helicopter except that engine failure risk is mitigated by the emergency parachute system. Running into stuff while flying low is probably the main mode of death.
- bonsaitree 17y agoMainly due to the fact that a 'powered parachute' (e.g. an ultralite) undergoes essentially no mass modal volume delta in airflow when transitioning between powered and unpowered flight. The controls, and fundamental aeronautical responses to flight inputs, remain the same in both flight regimes and, for the most part, there's a gradual and manageable amount of pilot feedback during the transition. In fact, this lack of "gradual feedback" was the main reason that power steering took so long to be safety-approved in automobiles. It's also why, in most countries, pure 'drive-by-wire' controls are only allowed in experimental and prototype road vehicles. Despite the obvious ergonomic and cockpit layout virtues of joysticks, steering wheels and worm gears can still work without active power-assists. The same can be said for a gliding light airplane or helicopter under auto-rotation. Alas, the same CAN NOT be said for the Martin jetpack when deploying its ballistic parachute. Btw, aside from cost and liability issues, this is one of the reasons emergency ballistic parachutes haven't caught on in small single-engine aircraft.
- thetrumanshow 17y agoBesides the extra weight, what is the difference between a skydiver and someone wearing a jetpack when deploying a parachute?
- ratsbane 17y agoIn the case of the jetpack the parachute is launched upward with rockets. This takes extra time: the time it would take for the operator or system to detect engine-out and initiate parachute launch, then the time it would take for a rocket(s) to launch the parachute up to where it could be, then the time for the uprush of air to catch the canopy. Here's a link to an article about the ballistic parachute fitted to Cirrus SR20/22 aircraft. http://www.cirruspilots.org/content/CAPSHistory.aspx http://www.cirruspilots.org/content/CAPSHistory.aspx There's one mention of a low-altitude parachute deployment: "one activation occurred at too low an altitude to fully inflate the canopy (witnesses report 200 feet above ground), and another activation where the rocket took an unusual trajectory resulting in a failure to open the canopy."
- 10ren 17y agoMore a Fanpack. Still, very cool. video http://www.martinjetpack.com/video-gallery.aspx http://www.martinjetpack.com/video-gallery.aspx
- docgnome 17y agoYet another reason for me to try to lose some weight :-P
- jacquesm 17y agoIt's a bit of a stretch to call it the first commercially available personal flying machine, there are plenty of single-seat aircraft and choppers that qualify for that title. This guy has them beaten for style though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Dbbp1_FJc&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Dbbp1_FJc&feature=relat... and this one is pretty neat too...: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDmnjwbJrVM&feature=fvsr http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDmnjwbJrVM&feature=fvsr
- jluxenberg 17y agoAgreed. Also, powered parachutes and paragliders have been around for a while: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKYCbE7pCHY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKYCbE7pCHY
- gcheong 17y agoCame across this today: http://www.terrafugia.com http://www.terrafugia.com
- jacquesm 17y agoWow... that's one very neat little machine. $194,000 is a bit steep though!
- Groxx 17y ago"That's not flying! That was falling with style!"
- orblivion 17y agoWeren't we all told that this would be impossible?
- leelin 17y agoSeems like it'll get the same treatment as the Segway. Lots of places banned Segways from sidewalks... Jetpacks certainly need to be banned from pretty much anyplace where it would be worthwhile or incredibly fun?
- rbanffy 17y agoIf it gets certificated as something more than an experimental aircraft, you should expect to be able to fly it at least by the same rules you fly a helicopter.
- khafra 17y agoWhat really matters is whether I'm allowed to fly it to work or not.
- jrockway 17y agoI'm pretty sure there is nothing stopping you from flying an ultralight (or even regular) aircraft to work. Except for cost.
- rbanffy 17y agoIn my case, there are a couple buildings, to say nothing about one of the busiest airports in the country.
- clistctrl 17y agoWhat's funny is after watching the video I imagined myself flying this thing to my work, landing on the roof then taking the ladder down to our deck. After that I'll just stroll through the doors like business as usual. So basically the same thing I was dreaming of when I was in grade school.
- rbanffy 17y agoMine had rockets... Propellers are so 20th century...
- ekanes 17y agoThought their pricing was interesting, lower than I would have guessed: "Martin Aircraft has built several prototypes so we have a good idea how much they cost to manufacture. Depending on production volume, the initial cost will be about the same as a high-end motorcycle or car. As volume increases this will drop to be similar to a mid-range motorcycle or car."
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- javajones 17y agoWhat fuel does it use?
- jigg4joe 17y ago"...powered by a 200hp two-liter V4 two-stroke petrol engine." Same as your car.
- smallblacksun 17y ago"two-stroke" Same as your lawnmower.
- billswift 17y agoYou mean chain saw, most lawn mowers are four-stroke.
- evgen 17y agoWhy are they using a 2-stroke ICE instead of a small turbine I wonder? The pack looked quite cool from the front but when the pilot spun around it looked like he had a VW beetle strapped to his back...
- bonsaitree 17y agoI can only guess fuel-consumption-to-thrust efficiencies (longer flight times) or pure cost since a pure gas turbine will always beat out a mechanically linked fan-stroke in specific power (i.e. kW/kg), but will almost always be more costly due to the extremely high manufacturing tolerances required for turbines.
- awolf 17y agoIn 10 years we are going to look back at these photos and laugh at how ridiculous the first jetpacks looked.
- ars 17y agoWhy? It looks very similar to jetpacks from 50 years ago. The physics of rockets is not going to change.
- eplanit 17y agoYeah! The author of the article seems to think the concept originated with "The Fall Guy" in the 1980s. http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/design/personal-flyer/bond.jpg http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/design/personal-flyer/b...
- synnik 17y agoIt is classed by the FAA as an ultralight aircraft. Google surely will provide full details, but in brief, that means that you cannot fly it over any inhabited area. No commuting.
- qeorge 17y agoOriginal article with more information: http://www.gizmag.com/first-commercially-available-jetpack/14423/ http://www.gizmag.com/first-commercially-available-jetpack/1...
- NZ_Matt 17y agoI've seen this on a few New Zealand current affairs shows and have never seen any footage of an unassisted outdoor flight. Every time the creators have had media coverage they have insisted on doing it inside and not allowing it to go higher than a few meters off the ground. I'd like to see them do a real test flight higher than a few meters off the ground before I'm convinced that this is the real deal.