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Glenn Martin and Martin Jetpack [0] (Glenn left the company in 2015 though) has been trying to build and bring to market something similar for the past decade (
by toomanybeersies 8y ago
Glenn Martin and Martin Jetpack [0] (Glenn left the company in 2015 though) has been trying to build and bring to market something similar for the past decade (development has been going on decades before that). There's apparent commercial, private, and government interest in the device, but somehow that hasn't actually manifested into a finished and delivered product.
When Glenn spoke to a group of potential investors (which I was somehow a part of) back in 2011 you'd think that they were on the cusp of having a finished product and a stack of orders from the US DOD, a variety of commercial organisations, and dozens of rich people who want a personal aircraft. Technically Martin Jetpack still exists, but it has failed to bring anything to market, despite having millions of dollars poured into the company [1]
I struggle to see how Jetpack Aviation is going to achieve what Glenn and his company failed to do. They don't even have a flying prototype or a physical mockup, only some cool CAD models that look like they were made by some high school kid who's watched Star Wars a few too many times.
Jetpacks and flying motorbikes look cool, but on a practical basis they just aren't useful. They don't fly high enough or fast enough, and they can't operate in high wind or poor weather. For military/government use they aren't suitable and there just aren't enough rich people who want an expensive flying toy to sustain the market.
[0] http://www.martinjetpack.com/ http://www.martinjetpack.com/
[1] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12132568 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&...
- msie 8y agoThis company is different. Their jetpack is way more portable than martin’s and Ive seen several videos of successful flights. I think making a motorbike won’t be that hard for them.
- dmayman 8y agoOur tech could not be more different to the MJP. Theirs was a gasoline engine powering a pair of ducted fans. Too many single points of failure and never able to keep the engine cool, not possible to fly much faster than 60mph. Ours is 1/3rd the size, will fly at 4x the speed. We’ve flown our jetpacks all over the world. We already have a development agreement with the US Navy. They are perfect for overt (perhaps not covert) military ops - insertion and extraction and getting medics into position. Why risk a Blackhawk and crew??!! Why not for governments and EMS. If we can get EMS medics to heart attack and stroke victims just 1 min quicker the number of lives saved is 100,000 - 200,000/yr just in USA. Isn’t that worth taking a shot at? I don’t understand the point about flying high enough. We can fly at over 15,000ft
- jamestimmins 8y agoIt's exciting to see y'all working on this. I'm all for the Buck Rogers-style innovation. I'm curious, how high have you actually flown it? Up to 15,000 ft? That sounds absolutely terrifying.
- dmayman 8y agoNo we haven’t to 15k ft, we’ve modelled that. We’ve flown at approx 7k ft above mean sea level in alps
- Footkerchief 8y agoHow high above local ground level?
- cheeze 8y agoHey first things first I respect what you're doing. A 1% chance of success is worth it here. That being said... You are literally exactly this with your comment... > When Glenn spoke to a group of potential investors (which I was somehow a part of) back in 2011 you'd think that they were on the cusp of having a finished product and a stack of orders from the US DOD, a variety of commercial organisations, and dozens of rich people who want a personal aircraft.
- dmayman 8y agoWe were never part of the Martin JetPack project. Totally different tech.
- schoen 8y agoI think small flying vehicles are cool and this is a good use for them, but if this is true, are there other ways to get more people equipped with some of these lifesaving skills at possibly lower marginal cost? CPR training? More AEDs? Some more kinds of injectors that can be used by people with minimal training? Maybe there are other devices on the model of the AED that could administer other kinds of potentially-dangerous treatments?
- Gatsky 8y agoLook that's all fine but you must surely realise where you are posting this, and that in the future your comment can only be either irrelevant or held up as an example of people making predictions that turn out to be wrong. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224