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Martin Jetpack refined, available this year
Remember that Martin "Jetpack" that was making the rounds last summer? The twin-fanned flier wasn't quite ready to take to the skies, hovering just a couple of feet off the ground, and always with two especially attentive attendants walking alongside, ready to snag it if something went awry.
What a difference nine months makes. Look at it now, capable of accurate control, and it's said to fly for 30 minutes at 60 mph, and travel a distance of 8000 feet. Still no word on how high it can go, or if it can exceed the altitude where it's boosted by that helpful ground effect. But this is a great improvement over the demos from last year.
Now they can just bring the cost down from its current $100,000, the era of intensely personal flight might be closer at hand. According to Martin, the first 10 units go on sale sometime this year.
Martin Jetpack, via Oh Gizmo
By jnikolai at 12:52 PM ON 05/08/09
If it flies for 30 minutes at 60 mph, shouldn't it go further than 8000 feet? Must be that new math.
By Emiiiiiil at 1:05 PM ON 05/08/09
yeah it does not compute here either.
on the top of my head i cant come up with a single
ideea where this could be useful?
atleast if it cant raise itself higher than that!
but atleast it seems that they are learning new things
that might be useful in other applications.
By PeterD at 1:37 PM ON 05/08/09
Yeah, some clarification on those stats would be nice. How can it travel for 30 minutes at 60 mph (thus suggesting a range of 30 miles) yet only travel 8000 feet (less than two miles)? That's not terribly useful.
By Old Man Dotes at 1:38 PM ON 05/08/09
Frankly, having observed drivers around me on the ground during my daily commute, and on weekends, I don't *want* a whole lot of people flying overhead.
And I am reasonably sure that "8000 feet" is the altitude the jetpack can reach for cruising; I read someplace else that it can go 30 miles on a tank of fuel.
By Deaf-Mute at 2:22 PM ON 05/08/09
If Old Man Dotes is correct, and I think he is. Then this machine can have it's uses. Flying to places where it is either impossible or just too dangerous to drive and where a plane cannot land. Even at it's current price, it is still much cheaper than any available helicopter, and even much easier to fly perhaps.
By foravalon at 4:31 PM ON 05/09/09
See now, the control and handling on this is awesome, how hard would it be to rig up a light weight rollbar/cage, maybe a carbon fiber skin and make a practical personal flying vehicle out of this? You could maybe pair a couple of these engines for added lift and stability and probably even get away greater fuel storage if you did. If this video is legit and you could get comparable handling out of it, I think this could be feasible.
By Wombat at 9:04 PM ON 05/10/09
That's incredible maybe put a couple of retractable wings on it and shout "To Infinity and Beyond" I think though if it had wings on it it would be able to take off like a helicopter and then cruse using the lift from the wings. This may give it better fuel economy
By The Dude at 11:00 PM ON 01/07/10
It's different, remember that its propulsion system is pendant on atmospheric density, at higher elevations there's less atmospheric pressure, so it gets harder for its thrusters to generate lift.
It sort of hits a logistics cap at 8000 feet I'm guessing.
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The Dude:
It's different, remember that its propulsion system is pendant on atmospheric density, at higher elevations there's...More »