9 ms·

Personal flight, once a pipe dream, is within our reach

66 points by blisterpeanuts 10y ago

PhasmaFelis 10y ago
The original title did not use the word "practical," which this manifestly isn't.
- dang 10y ago
  Yes, the submitted title ("A practical jetpack is just around the corner") was rewritten, which violates the HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Submitters: the rule on HN is not to rewrite a title unless it is misleading or linkbait. If a subtitle is more informative, it's ok to use that. (We've done so here, because the title is a question and we all know what that triggers.)
  - Raphmedia 10y ago
    Omg, Hanlon's razor totatlly predicts that Occam's razor will says that because of Betteridge's law of headlines the original title of the article is soooooo clickbait... ;)
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
claar 10y ago
Looks like a nice competition: Jetpack Aviation JB-9/JB-10 (from this article): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3AwBSwFV2I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3AwBSwFV2I * Specs from http://jetpackaviation.com/ http://jetpackaviation.com/: - Up to 10,000+ feet - Top speed > 100mph (>160kph) - Max flight time: 10+ minutes Flyboard Air: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEDrMriKsFM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEDrMriKsFM * Specs from http://zapata-racing.com/flyboardair-en http://zapata-racing.com/flyboardair-en: - Up to 10,000 feet - Top speed of 93.2 mph (150 km/h) - Max flight time: 10 minutes
- jessriedel 10y ago
  I suppose 10 minutes is for hovering rather than 100 mph. I wonder what the range is then? In principle you could add a lot of range by attaching wings, but maybe it's not worth the weight.
  - justinator 10y ago
    I kinda wonder why not Jet Pack your way to altitude, then deploy the parachute that'll then allow you to glide to a farther off destination?
    - jessriedel 10y ago
      You have to re-pack the chute, which either requires an advanced certification or the expense of paying someone to do it for you. Either way, a lot less convenient than fueling up your tank.
      - justinator 10y ago
        Well, that's the other thing: this is a one-way trip, unless I can get jet-pack fuel, just anywhere I decide to land. How much fuel does the landing song and dance take? Seems like it's a lotta hovering just right. And wait a minute: packing a chute requires advanced certification, but we'll let just anyone go around with the jet pack? :) And who's gonna go jet packing without a safety system, like a parachute anyways? That thing cuts out, there's no, "Guess we'll glide this to the ground" failure mode.
  - monk_e_boy 10y ago
    About six meters into a human sized crater if I were using one.
- cfontes 10y ago
  FlyBoard looks amazing... Thanks for sharing it
- Animats 10y ago
pilom 10y ago
If you want to be able to fly around like this at low altitude, why not just get a powered paraglider? Cheaper, safer, longer flight time and you can buy one today?
- blisterpeanuts 10y ago
  Some of those look pretty good, but aren't you somewhat dependent on the wind? The jet pack gives you VTOL, 100 miles per hour, and probably the wind is less of an issue (albeit not a non-issue).
- mikeash 10y ago
  VTOL and speed would be two major differences I see, but I agree with the overall theme that existing solutions tend to get unjustly ignored. I especially liked this bit: "There is some talk of having two jetpacks on top of every skyscraper in China." Sure, you could have a near-experimental jetpack which requires significant training to fly safely and which costs a quarter of a million dollars, or you could spend $2,500 on a standard airplane emergency parachute which any random bozo can use safely with about three minutes of "here's how you buckle the straps, and here's the ring you pull." Same basic thing for a these weird hybrid car/airplane contraptions they call "flying cars." For less money you can buy a great car, a great airplane, another great car for your most frequently visited destination, and have enough money left over for rental cars for all your other destinations for the rest of your life.
  - VLM 10y ago
    And yet, WRT your last paragraph, SUVs still sell, so there remains some kind of market for swiss-army-knife-cars.
    - mikeash 10y ago
      The vast majority of SUVs on the roads are just larger cars. They're minivans without the stigma of sliding doors.
      - 10y ago
nervoustwit 10y ago
"Is the Jetpack Movement Finally Taking Off?" TLDR; No
lucio 10y ago
I don't know why, but the flyboard has a waaay much cooler "air" to it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNKRxsNyOho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNKRxsNyOho
- agumonkey 10y ago
  Felt like a tiny personal spacex barge landing ceremony.
6stringmerc 10y ago
As much as I appreciate the Flyboard Air, and really truly think it's impressive, my inspiration for a personal flight device is more along the lines of what Jetman has been using. Vertical take-off and landing - in my opinion - are stupidly wasteful "necessities" that only compound the problem of being able to have a decent amount of flight time. A wing for lift is, to me, essential if a personal flight device is ever going to be compelling. I'm working on a different invention right now, but in time I do hope to return to my ParaWing concept, which combines modern scientific findings and design with composites in mind to have a lot of performance potential. Seems dangerous as all get out but that's the fun.
mentos 10y ago
Fun thought experiment is imagine the jetpack had infinite fuel and was 100% safe what would you do with it? For me I'd probably just go get a slice of pizza heh
- blisterpeanuts 10y ago
  If you include a very effective collision avoidance system, then I'm in. I'd use it for frickin' everything. Commuting would be so nice without having to sit in traffic. Eastern Massachusetts rush hours are brutal. Just zoom straight to your destination using an "as the crow flies" route, and rely on the auto-pilot and collision avoidance to take care of the actual steering while you check your email. 20 miles in 12 minutes. Sweet. I would just be slightly concerned about collisions with birds. By the way, if fuel is unlimited, then we could have flying restaurants. They'd have names like High Altitude Café, Cloud Starbucks, etc.
  - pmalynin 10y ago
    Cloud...computing also?
- losteric 10y ago
  Fly through canyons, dance around clouds, land on skyscrapers, troll some eagles...
  - nickcano 10y ago
    That's interesting, I wonder what happens if you take one of the current prototypes and hover off the ledge of a canyon... Will you drop suddenly and go splat, or will you keep altitude? Intuition says the former, but I'd like to know objectively.
    - losteric 10y ago
      If you're flying high enough before going over the cliff, you'd keep hovering... it's no different than a helicopter. These jets can definitely fly that high. That said, if you're not flying high enough... if it's just the jet pushing air against the ground... you will go splat.
kafkaesq 10y ago
And we thought leaf blowers and car alarms were bad enough. I really, really hope I don't have to listen to one of my neighbors firing up one of those things in his backyard, any time soon. And I'd even more hate to be... a "resident" of his goldfish pond.
DenisM 10y ago
Where's Pentagon in all this? I would think they'd be the first to find a practical use for it. Much faster than a paraglider, and much easier to deploy than a helicopter. I can imagine a group of commandos crossing the enemy lines at 100mph to sabotage something or other, or a spy escaping back to the safety of his own side. At least there has to be a movie based on this. Like, a jet-troops vs. jet-troops fire-fight.
- mschuster91 10y ago
  > I would think they'd be the first to find a practical use for it. Problem is, the pilot is SUCH an easy target. A helicopter can survive pretty heavy fire, and a glider doesn't care about a couple bullet holes in the wings. Hit the jetpack, though, and the pilot goes either up in flames or dies of massive impact deceleration.
  - Roritharr 10y ago
    That would make Just Cause 3 a war Sim. Crazy Imagery.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
mrfusion 10y ago
How about gyrocopters for personal flight? They seem stable, and inexpensive. And I think you get stovl?
Aelinsaar 10y ago
Unfortunately it's still really, "Personal flight [for fun and thrills]..." We're still not any closer to everyone jetting around as a general mode of getting from point A to B, and won't with anything like this kind of technology.
ChuckMcM 10y ago
This looks like a really fun toy. Like others I've wondered when material science and miniaturization were going to span a credible jet engine at "backpack" sizes. The noise has to be pretty incredible though. My take on them is that they won't be practical but like supercars I'll wish I owned one anyway. Now if I could just challenge Elon Musk into making it electric and practical ...
BatFastard 10y ago
Anyone notice 11 gallons of fuel for 10 minutes of flight? Calling this a gas guzzler would be kind!
stefanix 10y ago
Always was so fascinated by this until I got my PPL. Now I just fly and wonder why I was waiting for a mystical new machine. In retrospect it was just a weird mental block. Just go fly a glider, UL or, VLA. Buckling up feels like putting on a wing backpack, I promise. They become an extension to your body after about 50h of flying. Most importantly these flying machines are available right now. Also they work really well. Mindbogglingly well. There are ULs that can fly 1000km on 15 gal. With about 100h of experience you can fly a glider 500km and more. I hear you say but it's expensive. Glider flying can be quite affordable, like 2000 bucks/year affordable. It's more flying anyways especially when you live in a mountainous area. Many clubs also let you reduce the fees when you help maintain the gear. I hear you say it takes a lot of training. Well, you are pretending to be a bird. Chances are you will welcome the training until you feel very comfortable in the air. I never thought the required training is tedious. It's really part of the fun. In short, If you want to to fly it's more doable than you may think and tiny flying addons (aka jetpacks) are generally overrated.
velox_io 10y ago
I've just seen this. I wonder if a version of this (with computer assisted flight) could be come a personal commuting device?

The original title did not use the word "practical," which this manifestly isn't.

dang 10y ago
Yes, the submitted title ("A practical jetpack is just around the corner") was rewritten, which violates the HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Submitters: the rule on HN is not to rewrite a title unless it is misleading or linkbait. If a subtitle is more informative, it's ok to use that. (We've done so here, because the title is a question and we all know what that triggers.)
- Raphmedia 10y ago
  Omg, Hanlon's razor totatlly predicts that Occam's razor will says that because of Betteridge's law of headlines the original title of the article is soooooo clickbait... ;)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

claar 10y ago

Looks like a nice competition: Jetpack Aviation JB-9/JB-10 (from this article): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3AwBSwFV2I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3AwBSwFV2I * Specs from http://jetpackaviation.com/ http://jetpackaviation.com/: - Up to 10,000+ feet - Top speed > 100mph (>160kph) - Max flight time: 10+ minutes Flyboard Air: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEDrMriKsFM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEDrMriKsFM * Specs from http://zapata-racing.com/flyboardair-en http://zapata-racing.com/flyboardair-en: - Up to 10,000 feet - Top speed of 93.2 mph (150 km/h) - Max flight time: 10 minutes

jessriedel 10y ago
I suppose 10 minutes is for hovering rather than 100 mph. I wonder what the range is then? In principle you could add a lot of range by attaching wings, but maybe it's not worth the weight.
- justinator 10y ago
  I kinda wonder why not Jet Pack your way to altitude, then deploy the parachute that'll then allow you to glide to a farther off destination?
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    You have to re-pack the chute, which either requires an advanced certification or the expense of paying someone to do it for you. Either way, a lot less convenient than fueling up your tank.
    - justinator 10y ago
      Well, that's the other thing: this is a one-way trip, unless I can get jet-pack fuel, just anywhere I decide to land. How much fuel does the landing song and dance take? Seems like it's a lotta hovering just right. And wait a minute: packing a chute requires advanced certification, but we'll let just anyone go around with the jet pack? :) And who's gonna go jet packing without a safety system, like a parachute anyways? That thing cuts out, there's no, "Guess we'll glide this to the ground" failure mode.
- monk_e_boy 10y ago
  About six meters into a human sized crater if I were using one.
cfontes 10y ago
FlyBoard looks amazing... Thanks for sharing it
Animats 10y ago

pilom 10y ago

If you want to be able to fly around like this at low altitude, why not just get a powered paraglider? Cheaper, safer, longer flight time and you can buy one today?

blisterpeanuts 10y ago
Some of those look pretty good, but aren't you somewhat dependent on the wind? The jet pack gives you VTOL, 100 miles per hour, and probably the wind is less of an issue (albeit not a non-issue).
mikeash 10y ago
VTOL and speed would be two major differences I see, but I agree with the overall theme that existing solutions tend to get unjustly ignored. I especially liked this bit: "There is some talk of having two jetpacks on top of every skyscraper in China." Sure, you could have a near-experimental jetpack which requires significant training to fly safely and which costs a quarter of a million dollars, or you could spend $2,500 on a standard airplane emergency parachute which any random bozo can use safely with about three minutes of "here's how you buckle the straps, and here's the ring you pull." Same basic thing for a these weird hybrid car/airplane contraptions they call "flying cars." For less money you can buy a great car, a great airplane, another great car for your most frequently visited destination, and have enough money left over for rental cars for all your other destinations for the rest of your life.
- VLM 10y ago
  And yet, WRT your last paragraph, SUVs still sell, so there remains some kind of market for swiss-army-knife-cars.
  - mikeash 10y ago
    The vast majority of SUVs on the roads are just larger cars. They're minivans without the stigma of sliding doors.
    - 10y ago

nervoustwit 10y ago

"Is the Jetpack Movement Finally Taking Off?" TLDR; No

lucio 10y ago

I don't know why, but the flyboard has a waaay much cooler "air" to it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNKRxsNyOho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNKRxsNyOho

agumonkey 10y ago
Felt like a tiny personal spacex barge landing ceremony.

6stringmerc 10y ago

As much as I appreciate the Flyboard Air, and really truly think it's impressive, my inspiration for a personal flight device is more along the lines of what Jetman has been using. Vertical take-off and landing - in my opinion - are stupidly wasteful "necessities" that only compound the problem of being able to have a decent amount of flight time. A wing for lift is, to me, essential if a personal flight device is ever going to be compelling. I'm working on a different invention right now, but in time I do hope to return to my ParaWing concept, which combines modern scientific findings and design with composites in mind to have a lot of performance potential. Seems dangerous as all get out but that's the fun.

mentos 10y ago

Fun thought experiment is imagine the jetpack had infinite fuel and was 100% safe what would you do with it? For me I'd probably just go get a slice of pizza heh

blisterpeanuts 10y ago
If you include a very effective collision avoidance system, then I'm in. I'd use it for frickin' everything. Commuting would be so nice without having to sit in traffic. Eastern Massachusetts rush hours are brutal. Just zoom straight to your destination using an "as the crow flies" route, and rely on the auto-pilot and collision avoidance to take care of the actual steering while you check your email. 20 miles in 12 minutes. Sweet. I would just be slightly concerned about collisions with birds. By the way, if fuel is unlimited, then we could have flying restaurants. They'd have names like High Altitude Café, Cloud Starbucks, etc.
- pmalynin 10y ago
  Cloud...computing also?
losteric 10y ago
Fly through canyons, dance around clouds, land on skyscrapers, troll some eagles...
- nickcano 10y ago
  That's interesting, I wonder what happens if you take one of the current prototypes and hover off the ledge of a canyon... Will you drop suddenly and go splat, or will you keep altitude? Intuition says the former, but I'd like to know objectively.
  - losteric 10y ago
    If you're flying high enough before going over the cliff, you'd keep hovering... it's no different than a helicopter. These jets can definitely fly that high. That said, if you're not flying high enough... if it's just the jet pushing air against the ground... you will go splat.

kafkaesq 10y ago

And we thought leaf blowers and car alarms were bad enough. I really, really hope I don't have to listen to one of my neighbors firing up one of those things in his backyard, any time soon. And I'd even more hate to be... a "resident" of his goldfish pond.

DenisM 10y ago

Where's Pentagon in all this? I would think they'd be the first to find a practical use for it. Much faster than a paraglider, and much easier to deploy than a helicopter. I can imagine a group of commandos crossing the enemy lines at 100mph to sabotage something or other, or a spy escaping back to the safety of his own side. At least there has to be a movie based on this. Like, a jet-troops vs. jet-troops fire-fight.

mschuster91 10y ago
> I would think they'd be the first to find a practical use for it. Problem is, the pilot is SUCH an easy target. A helicopter can survive pretty heavy fire, and a glider doesn't care about a couple bullet holes in the wings. Hit the jetpack, though, and the pilot goes either up in flames or dies of massive impact deceleration.
- Roritharr 10y ago
  That would make Just Cause 3 a war Sim. Crazy Imagery.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

mrfusion 10y ago

How about gyrocopters for personal flight? They seem stable, and inexpensive. And I think you get stovl?

Aelinsaar 10y ago

Unfortunately it's still really, "Personal flight [for fun and thrills]..." We're still not any closer to everyone jetting around as a general mode of getting from point A to B, and won't with anything like this kind of technology.

ChuckMcM 10y ago

This looks like a really fun toy. Like others I've wondered when material science and miniaturization were going to span a credible jet engine at "backpack" sizes. The noise has to be pretty incredible though. My take on them is that they won't be practical but like supercars I'll wish I owned one anyway. Now if I could just challenge Elon Musk into making it electric and practical ...

BatFastard 10y ago

Anyone notice 11 gallons of fuel for 10 minutes of flight? Calling this a gas guzzler would be kind!

stefanix 10y ago

Always was so fascinated by this until I got my PPL. Now I just fly and wonder why I was waiting for a mystical new machine. In retrospect it was just a weird mental block. Just go fly a glider, UL or, VLA. Buckling up feels like putting on a wing backpack, I promise. They become an extension to your body after about 50h of flying. Most importantly these flying machines are available right now. Also they work really well. Mindbogglingly well. There are ULs that can fly 1000km on 15 gal. With about 100h of experience you can fly a glider 500km and more. I hear you say but it's expensive. Glider flying can be quite affordable, like 2000 bucks/year affordable. It's more flying anyways especially when you live in a mountainous area. Many clubs also let you reduce the fees when you help maintain the gear. I hear you say it takes a lot of training. Well, you are pretending to be a bird. Chances are you will welcome the training until you feel very comfortable in the air. I never thought the required training is tedious. It's really part of the fun. In short, If you want to to fly it's more doable than you may think and tiny flying addons (aka jetpacks) are generally overrated.

velox_io 10y ago

I've just seen this. I wonder if a version of this (with computer assisted flight) could be come a personal commuting device?