Practical???

If the weight could be reduced from 250 lbs to 150 or so then I'd say sign me up but 250 is a little on the hefty side. I wonder where the majority of the weight comes from?

When a plane flies into a flock of birds, they can easily be sucked into the engines and cause catastrophic damage, causing it to crash ( even a large plane ).

So... what happens when a man with a super-charged lawnmower strapped to his back, does the same?

Will he simply be able to "float down" softly, when his jet pack has just exploded? There's being adventurous... and then there's flirting with suicide.

This exciting but downright crazy machine is the latter.

Re: Reality

I guess you forgot to read the part where it has its own parachute? And I don't see why anyone cares about the weight as it won't matter when you are flying as the engines will be doing the work.

I'm thinking that ENONE was wondering about its carrying capabilities. I suppose the question of how you'd lift it to strap it on would come into play. But if you look at the picture, there are stands on both fans that would take the weight. More than likely you'd have to squat to strap it on. The center piece probably collapses.

I wonder how high and how fast the jetpack goes. Either way i will start saving for one right now.

i need buy this xD

For anyone that has been parachuting or base jumping, they know that you have to be a certain height for the parachute to open. So on the way up just high enough to kill you may not be high enough for the parachute. Choices to make. And if you don't know what heights I am speaking of then you have something else to look up before buying one of these.

there is a stand - you just strap it on and hit the thottles - it has a 30 minute endurance, much more than the old hydrogen peroxide packs, and you can see video of a limited public flight taken at AirVenture the other day at www.eaa.org

About the parachute, the article didn't say, but maybe he rigged up a quick-deployment rig. Something with compressed air to fire the chute out and spread the canopy out quickly, maybe. Who knows?

It's a good start.

Come on it's frigin JUST COOL!

Come on it's frigin JUST COOL!

Looks like the myth buster guys have some crow to eat. They tried to build on of these and ot was a flop.

They could have installed the saftey chute like was developed for ultra light and hang gliders, its a lot fater opening and full canopy then a base jumpers rig.

What ever happened to that old fan powered platform flier the military had devloped years ago, it was very stable and flew almost like a segway drives. It looked like an industrial fan with a hand railing on it. They even tested it with guys shooting from it while hovering.

the chap is brave, but don't think this will sell.

I am gonna wait for the Jestsons car to be perfected before I consider flyng around without a pilot.:)

You beta-testers all be sure to report back. I can imagine a number of similar risk opportunities that will leave more money in the estate: shark diving with a chum-flavored wetsuit, glue-dipped hand grenades, blindfolded snow skiing through a forest...

If you can ride a motor cycle in todays traffic with any gusto this isn't far off from the same risk factor. What if's can go on and on. Stick to the glass jar life, it is still a choice. Myself? I see this as a good weather mode of transportation where I don't have to worry about the people that can't drive to save their lives and all the darn stop lights. The probability of your catastrophic occurrences are as likely as a tragic car accident these days.
I find it strange how many people jump on the conservative band wagon with a proof of concept site myself.

Perhaps this will the Harley for the new millennium (middle-finger inciting noise and all).

The contraption itself seems like an abbreviated version of the Moller Volantor -- more like a mini model 200 than the full SkyCar M400. (See www.moller.com) Moller expects to begin marketing the M200 as an unlicensed recreational aircraft, getting away with that by restricting operating height above ground to just 10 feet. Maybe the NZ fellow's machine will need to be similarly restricted (in the US, at least) to keep from running afoul of federal regulators (where would you put an airbag on one of these things? ;-)

Just remembered the SoloTrek flying vehicle that was "just around the corner" a few years ago. THAT bore even greater resemblance to Glenn Martin's personal flyer. The SoloTrek got military money and the prototype rose off the ground for less than a half-minute. It had a similar dual prop-fan design. Martin might want to contact Moller to get a better engine for his machine. Moller's Rotapower engine is a powerful rotary that is relatively tiny, fuel-efficient and qualifies as SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle) under California standards.

I think I'll keep waiting for a "RocketMan" or "Buck Rogers" sized model. By the way, what happened to our flying cars? We were promised flying cars by the year 2000?

Ballistic chutes have been around for a long time.

is it just me or dosent that look a lot like the contraption that jamie and adam from mythbusters built and _failed_ to get airborne ?..
oh well, a flightpack for someone my size has yet to been built, so ill be sticking my boot down on earth for a few years more..

Look here all these questions are answered.

http://www.martinjetpack.com/the-martin-jetpack.aspx