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Man Sets World Record By Jetpacking 26 Miles To Catalina Island
An Orange County man set a world record yesterday by traveling 26 miles from Newport Beach to Catalina wearing only a jetpack (so what if there wasn't a previous record for jetpacking!).
Dean O'Malley, who just happens to be the president of jetpacking company JetLev Southwest, departed from Balboa Island around 7 am and made it to the island in four-and-a-half hours using 45 gallons of gas, according to CBS Los Angeles.
O'Malley timed the trip to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first flight from Newport Beach to Catalina by Glenn Martin. He told Laguna Niguel Patch: "One hundred years ago, people thought Glenn Martin was crazy when he flew his sea plane from Newport to Catalina, now people fly all around the world every single day. Hopefully in a few years, jetpack flight won't be such an unbelievable concept, and people may actually be using it as a viable means of transportation."
Ok, so the flight was obviously a promotional stunt for the jetpack industry, but it was a pretty cool one at that.
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