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A man named Glenn Martin in New Zealand has created a fully functioning, relatively safe jetpack à la many of our superhero fantasies. Except that it's five feet tall, weighs 250 pounds, and will probably sell for $100,000. The invention was exhibited at the annual airshow in Wisconsin known as the EAA AirVenture, and is the product of 27 years of hard work on Martin's part. Originally tested on his wife and 15-year-old son (nice!), Martin's jetpack can hover for about thirty minutes, and has so far lifted a max of 6 feet off the ground. It comes complete with an emergency parachute, a shock-absorbent base and is weighted appropriately to prevent falling over. Here is Martin's website for more info, and some slowly-loading flight videos.
A short video is also available on The New York Times site, of the reporter giving it a test-run, but the people holding onto him as he flies make it a little anticlimactic. Still, let's hope we hear more about this soon! And let's get crackin' on some Batman gadgets too.
Image via The Martin Jet Pack website
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Six feet off the ground? That won't even clear my fence. This is the kind of toy for people who would pay Richard Branson $250,000 for 5 minutes of weightlessness.
Only six feet so far. The article says Martin is going to test it to go up to 500 feet within the next six months.