Personal flight, once a pipe dream, is within our reach
wsj.com
wsj.com
Jetpack Aviation JB-9/JB-10 (from this article): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3AwBSwFV2I
* Specs from http://jetpackaviation.com/:
- Up to 10,000+ feet
- Top speed > 100mph (>160kph)
- Max flight time: 10+ minutes
* Specs from http://zapata-racing.com/flyboardair-en:
- Up to 10,000 feet
- Top speed of 93.2 mph (150 km/h)
- Max flight time: 10 minutesIn principle you could add a lot of range by attaching wings, but maybe it's not worth the weight.
And wait a minute: packing a chute requires advanced certification, but we'll let just anyone go around with the jet pack? :)
And who's gonna go jet packing without a safety system, like a parachute anyways? That thing cuts out, there's no, "Guess we'll glide this to the ground" failure mode.
A wing for lift is, to me, essential if a personal flight device is ever going to be compelling. I'm working on a different invention right now, but in time I do hope to return to my ParaWing concept, which combines modern scientific findings and design with composites in mind to have a lot of performance potential. Seems dangerous as all get out but that's the fun.
The jet pack gives you VTOL, 100 miles per hour, and probably the wind is less of an issue (albeit not a non-issue).
"There is some talk of having two jetpacks on top of every skyscraper in China."
Sure, you could have a near-experimental jetpack which requires significant training to fly safely and which costs a quarter of a million dollars, or you could spend $2,500 on a standard airplane emergency parachute which any random bozo can use safely with about three minutes of "here's how you buckle the straps, and here's the ring you pull."
Same basic thing for a these weird hybrid car/airplane contraptions they call "flying cars." For less money you can buy a great car, a great airplane, another great car for your most frequently visited destination, and have enough money left over for rental cars for all your other destinations for the rest of your life.
Now I just have to fight my wife about it, who'd rather have a small SUV...
I would argue that there would be very few people with zero parachute experience that with just three minutes training could jump from a building and not die catastrophically at the bottom.
Then there are only two rules to learn: 1) keep your feet together and 2) keep your legs 'semi flexed'.
And if you forget the rules then you usually break an ankle not 'die catastrophically'.
Guys that go base jumping off buildings have years of practice, and they're aware of how risky it is doing a low altitude jump around objects.
It's interesting that hovering, VTOL and small size are only important at the beginning and end of your flight. Maybe there's room for some kind of hybrid that takes off and lands like a small compact flyboard, but unfolds wings while cruising for better fuel efficiency? No idea how that would look though.
Probably a lot like a powered parachute. :-)
I can imagine a group of commandos crossing the enemy lines at 100mph to sabotage something or other, or a spy escaping back to the safety of his own side. At least there has to be a movie based on this. Like, a jet-troops vs. jet-troops fire-fight.
Problem is, the pilot is SUCH an easy target. A helicopter can survive pretty heavy fire, and a glider doesn't care about a couple bullet holes in the wings.
Hit the jetpack, though, and the pilot goes either up in flames or dies of massive impact deceleration.
Just go fly a glider, UL or, VLA. Buckling up feels like putting on a wing backpack, I promise. They become an extension to your body after about 50h of flying. Most importantly these flying machines are available right now. Also they work really well. Mindbogglingly well. There are ULs that can fly 1000km on 15 gal. With about 100h of experience you can fly a glider 500km and more.
I hear you say but it's expensive. Glider flying can be quite affordable, like 2000 bucks/year affordable. It's more flying anyways especially when you live in a mountainous area. Many clubs also let you reduce the fees when you help maintain the gear.
I hear you say it takes a lot of training. Well, you are pretending to be a bird. Chances are you will welcome the training until you feel very comfortable in the air. I never thought the required training is tedious. It's really part of the fun.
In short, If you want to to fly it's more doable than you may think and tiny flying addons (aka jetpacks) are generally overrated.
My take on them is that they won't be practical but like supercars I'll wish I owned one anyway. Now if I could just challenge Elon Musk into making it electric and practical ...
I wonder if a version of this (with computer assisted flight) could be come a personal commuting device?
For me I'd probably just go get a slice of pizza heh
I'd use it for frickin' everything. Commuting would be so nice without having to sit in traffic.
Eastern Massachusetts rush hours are brutal. Just zoom straight to your destination using an "as the crow flies" route, and rely on the auto-pilot and collision avoidance to take care of the actual steering while you check your email.
20 miles in 12 minutes. Sweet.
I would just be slightly concerned about collisions with birds.
By the way, if fuel is unlimited, then we could have flying restaurants. They'd have names like High Altitude Café, Cloud Starbucks, etc.
That said, if you're not flying high enough... if it's just the jet pushing air against the ground... you will go splat.
Submitters: the rule on HN is not to rewrite a title unless it is misleading or linkbait. If a subtitle is more informative, it's ok to use that. (We've done so here, because the title is a question and we all know what that triggers.)
;)