For some of us, jetpacks represent a dreamy way to fly over traffic en route to work. For those just looking for fun, look no further than the Flyboard, a contraption that lets you zip in and out of water — and soar above it — akin to Flipper after way too much caffeine.

The device was created by French water sports racer Franky Zapata. It's essentially a board hooked up to a personal watercraft such as a Jetski via a water-sucking hose. Water shoots out through jets below the feet and hand grips to provide propulsion. 

---

In the video above, Zapata shows off the Flyboard's ability to turn humans into flipping, twisting, jumping and diving dolphins. It looks like a blast, though some skill must be required not to get tangled up in the hose. 

It hooks up to any personal watercraft with more than 100 horsepower and costs about $6,400 (PWC not included). While there are certainly other jetpacks on the market, this one might fit a few more budgets and spike higher on the fun-o-meter.

[Via PopSci and The Australian]

More on jetpacks:

• Jetpack soars a mile high
• This jetpack can be yours for $100,000
• Dude, where’s my flying car and jetpack
• 7 flights of fancy that fizzled

---

John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

 

A group of German tinkerers have successfully completed what it claims is the world's first manned flight with an electric-powered "multi-copter" — a contraption that resembles a helicopter but with 16 rotors.

The one-minute-and-30-second flight was proof of concept for the machine that could one day find use for tasks such as inspecting wind turbines and pipelines or taking aerial photographs — in addition to giving aviation geeks a good time.

---

Though most similar to a helicopter, the team says the E-volo is superior due to the "simplicity of its engineered construction without complicated mechanics, and its redundant engines."

Should something go wrong, it can land even if four of its 16 rotors fail, for example. And since there is no propeller above the pilot, a safety parachute could also be deployed.

Sans pilot, the machine weighs 176 pounds (80 kilograms), light enough to be classified as an ultralight. 

What makes it different from other helicopter-like flying machines with multiple rotors is the electric power source — lithium-ion batteries. In its current configuration, there's enough juice for 20 minutes of flight.

We've recently seen other electric flying machines, such as the electric-powered plane that took flight this summer at EAA AirVenture show in Wisconsin. And students at the University of Maryland are working on a human-powered helicopter.

Compared to flying a plane, the E-volo is simple to operate — it is controlled with a joystick — potentially opening up this aviation thrill to the masses.

Future designs could include multi-seat machines that zip along quickly enough to replace the helicopters we see flying around today.

More on flying contraptions:

• Human powered helicopter rises
• Flying car cleared for the road
• 'Flying Humvee' moves ahead
• 7 flights of fancy that fizzled
• Dude, where's my flying car and jetpack?
• An electric plane you can (almost) buy

---

John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

 

 

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.

Airplane passengers tangled up in sluggish security lines this holiday weekend might wish they could take to the air themselves. Unfortunately, we've yet to evolve self-propelled flight, but scientists and engineers are busy taking lessons from nature to improve our barely century-old flight technology.

Take geckos, for example. Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley led by Ardian Jusufi have figured out how the lizards employ their tails to turn and right themselves as they fall from trees, helping them to always land on their feet. They even built a robotic model gecko that does the same trick. Check out this video of the falling gecko:

---

The work with robo-geckos "suggests that inertial appendages could simplify control of a variety of robots and unmanned aerial vehicles, because this solution allows for simple body reorientation," reads the opening editorial in a special issue of the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, devoted to flight technologies inspired by Mother Nature's fliers.

The journal also features research from the University of Maryland, showing that micro helicopters could be much simpler if they imitated the falling maple seed’s wing pitch for controlled hovering and forward flight.

Virginia Tech biologist Jake Socha reports on how the slithering of flying snakes allows them to glide from tree to tree – research that could one day lead to small and agile flying vehicles.

The challenges of building insect-sized robots with flapping wings similar to those on flies are explored by Harvard researchers Benjamin Finio and Robert Wood. While more work remains to be done, such robotic insects could one day serve as spies -– in effect, serving as the proverbial "fly on the wall."

The special edition also covers hovering hummingbirds, birds' intuitive exploitation of thermal updrafts, and seagulls' sense of flight environment, which allows them incredible angles of attack and increased control in crosswinds.

"Because biologists and engineers are typically trained quite differently, there is a gap between the understanding of natural flight of biologists and the engineer's expertise in designing vehicles that function well. In the middle, however, is a few pioneering engineers who are able to bridge both fields," David Lentink from Wageningen University and Andrew Biewener from Harvard University write in their editorial.

One of the best things about this special issue is that all the articles are freely accessible, which makes it easier to let your imagination take flight. 

More on nature-inspired technology:

• Space escape craft airbags designed like seed sacs
• Future robots will run like cockroaches
• Why bats are more efficient fliers than birds
• Flight of the robo-butterfly
• Spy plane maneuvers like a bird

---

John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).