5 ms·

Out of curiosity, why did these jet suits not exist until now? Why not a few decades ago? What (recent) technological advancement(s) has only now made them poss

Out of curiosity, why did these jet suits not exist until now? Why not a few decades ago? What (recent) technological advancement(s) has only now made them possible? My first guess is improvements in batteries?

traverseda 5y ago
Surely if you're hauling around all that fuel adding a small jet with an alternator can't be that difficult? Sometimes things just take a while. We could have had inexpensive desktop 3D printers decades ago.
- tpmx 5y ago
  FDM 3d printing was invented in 1989. The patent expired in 2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Scott_Crump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Scott_Crump
- FridayoLeary 5y ago
  I'm sorely disappointed that thus far, 3d printing hasn't been the commercial revolution that was hoped for. It was, and remains, little more than a hobbyists toy with little benefit to the general public. The manufacturing side of things may have found uses for 3d printing, but i'm doubtful if even that is the case.
  - serf 5y ago
    >The manufacturing side of things may have found uses for 3d printing, but i'm doubtful if even that is the case. you are grossly under-representing the role of additive manufacturing in today's world.[0] [0]: https://amfg.ai/2020/01/14/40-3d-printing-industry-stats-you-should-know-2020-redirect/ https://amfg.ai/2020/01/14/40-3d-printing-industry-stats-you...
slavik81 5y ago
There have been jetpacks for decades, but historically, landing softly was difficult. Lots of broken legs. They had limited flight time and many injuries.
- thescriptkiddie 5y ago
  Those would more accurately be described as "rocket packs".
opwieurposiu 5y ago
Microturbines for the radio control aircraft market. These are single stage centrifugal turbines with relatively low efficiency but high power to weight. https://minijets.org/en/0-100 https://minijets.org/en/0-100
dmix 5y ago
They provide a company history on the site why: https://gravity.co/inside-gravity/history https://gravity.co/inside-gravity/history
Robotbeat 5y ago
Batteries and brushless motors help start the microturbines. The microturbines come from the RC hobby world... Cheap hobby jets made this experimentation affordable. They apparently also used metal 3d printing for the jet suit, although I'm not sure that's as important.

traverseda 5y ago

Surely if you're hauling around all that fuel adding a small jet with an alternator can't be that difficult? Sometimes things just take a while. We could have had inexpensive desktop 3D printers decades ago.

tpmx 5y ago
FDM 3d printing was invented in 1989. The patent expired in 2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Scott_Crump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Scott_Crump
FridayoLeary 5y ago
I'm sorely disappointed that thus far, 3d printing hasn't been the commercial revolution that was hoped for. It was, and remains, little more than a hobbyists toy with little benefit to the general public. The manufacturing side of things may have found uses for 3d printing, but i'm doubtful if even that is the case.
- serf 5y ago
  >The manufacturing side of things may have found uses for 3d printing, but i'm doubtful if even that is the case. you are grossly under-representing the role of additive manufacturing in today's world.[0] [0]: https://amfg.ai/2020/01/14/40-3d-printing-industry-stats-you-should-know-2020-redirect/ https://amfg.ai/2020/01/14/40-3d-printing-industry-stats-you...

slavik81 5y ago

There have been jetpacks for decades, but historically, landing softly was difficult. Lots of broken legs. They had limited flight time and many injuries.

thescriptkiddie 5y ago
Those would more accurately be described as "rocket packs".

opwieurposiu 5y ago

Microturbines for the radio control aircraft market. These are single stage centrifugal turbines with relatively low efficiency but high power to weight. https://minijets.org/en/0-100 https://minijets.org/en/0-100

dmix 5y ago

They provide a company history on the site why: https://gravity.co/inside-gravity/history https://gravity.co/inside-gravity/history

Robotbeat 5y ago

Batteries and brushless motors help start the microturbines. The microturbines come from the RC hobby world... Cheap hobby jets made this experimentation affordable. They apparently also used metal 3d printing for the jet suit, although I'm not sure that's as important.