Jetpacks

All I can say is about freakin' time. I've been waiting for these things since 1968. Now the only question remaining is when can I buy one and how much? (Actually the article says about $100k, but if these things become practical I expect the price will come down substantially. Unfortunately I will most likely be dead or too old to use one by then.)

The Martin jetpack, a commercially developed jetpack, may soon be heading to a sky near you.

It is about time man flew among the birds – alone. We may not have the homes on the moon, or the flying cars that our totally reasonable childhood imaginations ensured us would be waiting for us when we grew up, but with a little luck and a lot of money, we might soon be able to scratch “jetpack” off of our bucket lists.

Imagine one day soon, you kiss the spouse good bye, walk the kids off to the school bus, then you prepare for the commute to work. But rather than sitting in traffic and squeezing your steering wheel in frustration as the car in front of you apparently believes the old adage of “speed kills”, so they are driving 15 MPH under the speed limit, you simply throw on your jetpack, terrify a few birds, and make it to work in record time. Sure there might be a few details that you would need to work out, like the practicalities on your hygiene after ripping through the wind with an engine strapped to your back, or the fact that you are betting your life on the reliability of the vehicle, but we are talking about a jetpack- practicalities be damned!

Although it may sound more sci-fi than sci-fact, a commercially developed jetpack is actually being eyed for mass production, with plans to eventually release it to the public. Let that sink in for a second. Jetpacks are real, and you might be able to buy one someday soon. Or at least see them among the skies.

First, it is important to note that these are reusable and maintainable jetpacks, and that while pricey, they could be landing in garages someday soon. There have been jetpacks available to the public- at least in theory- but shy of Evil Knievel, there really wasn’t much call for a device you strapped to your back that shot out flames and had the better-than-average chance of exploding. Not that there were a high instances of the rocket propelled jetpacks blowing up, but it does seem a bit like flicking fate in the eye and daring death to come and get some.

The jetpack in question is being developed by the Martin Aircraft Company which was founded in 1998 and operates out of New Zealand. Despite what may be the oddest coincidence in the aviation community- an industry not typically known for its love of hilarious coincidences- the Martin Aircraft Company was founded by Glenn Neal Martin, not to be confused with Glenn Luther Martin, whose “Glenn L. Martin Company” became the “Martin” in “Lockheed Martin”. In 2003, Martin Aircraft Company received its first round of funding from the Venture capital group, No 8 Ventures, and formed a board of directors with the goal of growing the company through the revenue produced from the Martin jetpack.

Currently Martin Aircraft Company is fulfilling an order for 500 jetpacks to be used by emergency services, as well as four unnamed defense companies. As of right now, the company’s focus is to produce jetpacks specifically for governmental purchase, but they are seeking funding to build at least one new factory with the purpose of producing jetpacks for the average (extremely rich) customer.

The Martin jetpack comes in two models. One is pretty much what you would expect a jetpack to be- it is a device that can carry a person to infinity and beyond, assuming that infinity is less than the 8000 feet ceiling or the 31.5 miles distance that travelling at the maximum regulated speed of 63mph will take you. With a full tank of gas, that would last roughly 30 minutes, although Martin Aircraft expects that to improve as the manufacturing process becomes more efficient. The other model, which will be an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), will be released before its much sexier human-friendly counterpart. Field trials for the UAV will begin in 2011. Depending on the results, the manned flight field trials will begin in 2012.

The jetpack operates the way you would imagine it. You strap it on, you fly. The principals aren’t all that difficult to comprehend. That might be a little bit of an oversimplification, and possibly a touch insulting to the extremely bright and dedicated engineers that have spent years working on the project, but really, how much convincing do you need that a jetpack is a good thing? You put it on, and suddenly you can fly. Everything else is details.

If you are one of “those” people that absolutely needs to know the specs on the combustion engine that you might one day soon be strapping to your back, the Martin jetpack uses a gasoline powered V4, 2.0 liter engine capable of producing 200 hp. In fact, the name “jetpack” is actually a bit of a misnomer, as there is not jet involved. But “Enginepack” just isn’t as sexy. It is a carbon fiber design that weighs around 250lbs before adding safety equipment, and at maximum thrust it can carry more than 600 lbs, so even the bulky NFL player that just signed a multi-million dollar contract extension can get in on the action. Can you honestly see Terrell Owens NOT buying one of these?

Read the entire article here.