E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSMartin Aircraft's jetpack soars as high as 5,000 feet during a remote-controlled test flight. Company founder Glenn Martin and remote-control pilot James Bowker are featured in this video.
A real-life jetpack passed a key test this month by soaring to a height of 5,000 feet, deploying an emergency parachute and drifting back down to New Zealand's Canterbury Plains.
"This successful test brings the future another step closer," Glenn Martin, the jetpack's inventor and founder of the New Zealand-based Martin Aircraft Co., said in a statement issued today.
Martin Aircraft says the previous altitude record for the fan-driven, wearable aircraft was 50 feet (15 meters). Sending a test pilot 100 times higher sounds like a scary proposition, and that's why the May 21 parachute test was unmanned. Instead, a dummy weighing as much as a human operator was put into the jetpack. The contraption was radio-controlled from a helicopter flying nearby.
The point of the exercise was to put the jetpack's emergency landing system to the test. The engine cut out at an altitude of 3,000 feet (900 meters), and then an off-the-shelf ballistic parachute popped out to slow the speed of descent. The jetpack hit the ground with a velocity of 15.7 mph (25.2 kilometers per hour), Martin Aircraft reported.
"The aircraft sustained some damage on impact, but we would expect that it is likely a pilot would have walked away from this emergency landing," the company said.
The jetpack pushed the envelope for climb rate (800 feet per minute or 4 meters per second, with the capability to rise even faster) and flight duration (9 minutes and 46 seconds). "This test also validated our flight model, proved thrust to weight ratio and proved our ability to fly a jetpack as an unmanned aerial vehicle, which will be key to some of the jetpack’s future emergency/search and rescue and military applications," Glenn Martin said.
The company expects the jetpack's first buyers to be military and emergency-response agencies — which might well be looking for ways to send in a remote-controlled aircraft capable of delivery, surveillance or extraction in situations that are too dangerous for more traditional conveyances.
Martin Aircraft's CEO, Richard Lauder, said the next steps in development will include improvements in the emergency parachute system, engine performance and high-speed flight stability.
The Martin jetpack project was unveiled almost three years ago at the EAA AirVenture air show in Wisconsin. The company says it's targeting an initial price tag of $100,000 for the recreational version of the vehicle. If the venture really does take off commercially, I could imagine jetpack rides becoming one of the offerings for recreational fliers, alongside hang-gliding adventures, ultralight airplane rides and balloon tours. Would you strap in? How much would you pay? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below.
More on jetpacks and other dreams of flight:
- This jetpack can be yours for $100,000
- Dude, where's my flying car and jetpack?
- Jetpack veterans meet new innovators
- Seven flights of fancy that fizzled
You can connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. Also, give a look to "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Does that look like fun or what? I would love to try that. zzzzzooooommmmmm............
just a thought...we're going lose hard to get to places.
I hope the tax payer is not contributing to this thing. We have drones to do the same type of things.
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "unexpected guests dropping in for dinner..."
Just part of the Flash Gordon fad continuum, it will fade away in a few weeks again.
Put me in a solar powered glider and let me fly forever, now that's the only way to fly.
Impressive!
Yeah ... when does it go from a jetpack to a small personal aircraft?
Realistically, for safety reasons ... the landing will have to be on some sort of wheels, rather than human legs, unless they can get the weight down to less than 30 pounds, which is very unlikely.
Which leaves us with more of a vehicle in which you sit and has wheels. And those are called airplanes or helicopters.
Even if you make a light recreational version, it will only get heavier as more safety features are implemented.
But hey ... people were shouting "Get a horse!" not to long ago as the first automobiles were stuck in the mud!
Suggestion: Upgrade the Parachute to a ParaGlider type chute so the "Jet Pack" can be directed to a landing site.
Some guy pretty much accomplished what this thing did several decades ago, only that was with a lawn chair and a bunch of balloons. And he had NO parachute!
But I love to see new ideas tried out...that's how Wilbur and Orville started...from flying simple gliders to test their ideas about lift, stability, and controlability, to finally putting an engine on it to create the Wright Flyer. At the altitudes that this is expected to reach, some kind of license from the FAA will be required, although I not sure how they would classify it...doubt if it would classify under the Sport Pilot standard.
Interesting how the jetpack sustained damage but they "expect" a pilot would be unharmed. Last time I checked flesh and bone tend to take damage before metal and plastic do.
I would love to own a jet-pack. Even as a kid reading comic books, I was fascinated with jet-packs that could help you soar through the sky, faster than a bird. It's so strange that we've had technology for over 50 years, but it hasn't advanced very much. I guess it would have to be the price of an economy car before I would consider going down to my local "jet-pack store" to test drive one.
Chad, here is your Sarah Palin joke.
Just like Sarah Palin everything has to start from useless and evolve. Unfortunately, Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution.
According to my memory, the jetpack was 280 ft. short of a 'mile.' and (how much did the flyer weigh?). Physics cannot be run by the media ignorants.
Picky picky, it's a headline, don't get your panties in a wad. I suppose if someone asks you how far away the sun is, you would never say 93 million miles, since it is really 92,955,820.5 miles. Right?
The article says the dummy used to represent a pilot weighed "as much as a human operator." Since we don't have the other information to do a precise evaluation of the physics of the flight, knowing the precise weight of the dummy would not be of any use to us, which is probably why they did not bother to include it.
Finally, "ignorants" is not a word. when used in the sense you use it, the word "ignorant" applies to both the singular and plural, since it is an adjective.
The editing timer cut me off. The final paragraph should read:
Finally, "ignorants" is not a word. When used in the sense you use it, the word "ignorant" applies to both the singular and plural, since it is an adjective. Even though it it being used as a noun, it retains its adjective base. Imagine referring to all the overweight people in the country or world as "the fats," or, in your case "the pompouses."
Lighten up, it's just the internet.
This could be handy in certain situations, but its uses will be somewhat limited. However, that doesn't mean they shouldn't keep working on this tech, its got a lot of promise for military use, and for search and rescue..
It needs to be a mule! So it can carry a small payload of people, or equipment. Its no good as a rescue device if it only carries one person. Smaller RC drones can do basic surveillance, we already have that covered. This needs to be able to carry stuff, reliably.
thats not a jet pack,,, thats a mini helicopter. And the developer is still to chicken to strap himself in it. Makes ya kinda wonder...
There was more than one test going on here in the one flight. It flew up to 5000 feet, but when they did the test of the emergency landing system they brought it down to 3000 feet before they turned off the engine. The term "cut out" was poorly chosen, since it implies an accident. The engine "failure" was part of the flight plan, to test the emergency landing system.
Pilot would've walked away, eh? At 15.7 mph, the pilot would have swallowed both knees and that doesn't even consider the added weight of the pack. Nope, too much energy for the body to absorb.
The parachute sounds good when falling from 3000 feet.
But what about from 150 ft?
Hang-gliding? Balloon Tours? Please, why think so small? How about finally using jet packs as a real life transportation alternative? The days of pollution causing automobiles with internal combustion engines and four rubber tires has got to finally be left back in the 20th century. Why must we continue to subject our lives to highway grid-lock? The 21st century needs to be about the freedom to be mobile without constraint. To be honest, I am suspicious about this jet pack being driven by a fan (a bit anachronistic if you ask me). I believe that the technology needs to be revolutionized for jet packs to be viable transportation vehicles. Let's start off with a most basic yet complicated concept that must be addressed by physicists: how to make air a solid. So close yet so far...