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Another Pass at the Personal Jetpack
Engadget is reporting that dreams of a personal jet pack may not be quite as distant as you might think. Skywalker Jets, created by Rick Herron boasts a 90-pound jet pack capable of propelling a 200-pound pilot through the air for about five minutes without the hassle of charred lower extremities. The production model, which he hopes to run past the FAA soon for approval, will only cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 — so start saving your pennies.
The production model, which he hopes to run past the FAA soon for approval [...]
Ah, yes. The good old "If I run fast enough it looks like my feet are off the ground" ploy.
people who forget to check how much fuel they have left while still hundreds of metres in the air plummetting down like bags of wet cement.
whatever about the cost of purchasing, running and maintaining one of these - I can't imagine any insurance company taking on the risk that the pilot won't do serious damage to property and by-standers.
The insurance premium will be huge.
Gee, EveryOne Really Gets Excited Laughing Up Cool Aero-vehicles. Still, We're In Luck. Landing Seems Uncompromisingly Easy.
"without the hassle of charred lower extremities"
Instead you just have lightly baked lower extremeties with a touch of fried groins.
Videogames made me kill people...I also eat mushrooms to grow bigger.
Sure glad it's got that yellow bar across the front of it for safety, just in case people can't see the freaking FLAMES and SMOKE, can't smell the FLESH, and can't hear the ROAR and the SCREAMING.
Skywalker Jets, created by Rick Herron boasts a 90 pound jet pack capable of propelling a 200 pound pilot through the air
... but what about we Americans?
Of course, they've been promising that baby for five years now...
What was once true, is no longer so
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Back when I was still flying (Army National National Guard, rotary wing) the landing checklist no longer included a fuel check (made sense to me).
However, the "old guys" were in the habit of a fuel check before landing.
One flight I finally responded to "fuel check" with "enough to land".
The Pilot-in-Command responded: "How much?"
Me: "Enough to land"
He: "If you did not calculate it how do you know?"
Me: "I don't have to calculate it. With or without fuel we are going to land."
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
This uses air-breathing jet engines. It's a jet pack.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
This personal helicopter can be flow for an hour or so and travels around 55 mph. Not as sexy as a jet pack, but it's far more utilitarian.
I get upset when my fully loaded Cessna 172 only fits 4 hours of fuel. I can see getting by with two, *maybe* one hour of fuel in a jetpack. But seriously - what can you do in 5 minutes?!?
It's not even enough to consider a form of commuting; you can barely accomplish any task that wouldn't be done easier with a helicopter/climbing ropes/scissor lift, plus the huge pricetag...
For most aircraft, FAA requires your flying vehicle to be able to get you to your destination with 30 minutes of backup fuel for delays, emergencies, or unforseen weather. Having a 5 minute flight time kind of negates all that...
At best, I see this as a backyard novelty at worst and an airshow wonder at best.
The crowd won't exactly be 10 feet off the ground. One guy will be 50 meters up and heading east to his job. Another will be 30 meters up and heading northeast. Another 100 meters up heading south, and so on and so on.
Once they've figured out the jetpack technology, they're going to have to get to work on some pretty clever crash prevention tech as well.
[X] Jetpack
[X] Nightvision
[X] Steroids
[X] Medikit
[X] Armor
[ ] holoduke
[ ] atomic health
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
Sure, I'll write the check now... considering you've proven that the jetpack managed to lift you a couple of inches on a teather. Of course I'm confident that you will be able to resolve all the issues of flight stability and emergency parachutes etc.
Is anyone else a little skeptical. Who in thier right mind would preorder something that hasn't even been properly demonstrated. Now if this guy managed to take off to about 30ft, hover a bit, then travel for a minute or two while performing some impressive demonstration of the manuverability I might consider this a worthwhile project. Otherwise it is nothing but a pipe dream... anyone can locate a motor of reasonable size and weight then mount it to a backpack... making it fly is the hard part!
Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
http://www.sixchuter.com/
next question?
Take the 90-Day Challenge! http://rwmurker.bodybyvi.com/
Lessee...the plane:
So why, exactly, would I spend money on this? It might have a larger coolness factor, but that'll wear off fast.
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
"Cables holding me down.." No, I can just barely see the wires the's suspended by, in his backyard, with his mom watching as he lifts his feet off the ground to pretend that he's flying. ...I'm sorry, even if it's legit and that's not his mom, the video is kinda funny.
Yes, we understand these tags always apply: fud, dupe, typo, slashdotted, topic name
The video suddenly pixelates when he lifts his feet. It is a scam.
First entomology, then virology, and finally bioinformatics systems. Bugs follow me wherever I go.
(is it jeep?) where the guy kisses his wife, and parachutes into the canyon to his car?/ how do you think exactly, he goes from the driveway back to his house...
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I'd like to see someone pilot one of these. http://gprime.net/video.php/flyinglawnmower
The Bell Rocketbelt used by The Rocketman was first flown in the early 1960's, and seems to be much more stable and with longer flying time than the Skywalker backpack. I don't know how the cost would compare, but 40 years of flying is a pretty good record for such an experimental device.
The prototype can hardly leave the ground.
The reference article is wrong. It uses engines similar to http://www.jetcatusa.com/p160.html
Pull my finger for my public key.
... You'll find that one of the main reasons they've never taken off, aside from the extreme risk and cost, is they're *incredibly* hard to control! The throttle's extremely sensitive, the power is immense, and if point it the wrong way, you'll either spin out of control, or plummet.
P.S. It is important to note that Mr. Herron holds the trademark for "Skywalker Jets". If you're interested in finding out more about trademarks, or searching the database, go here
I'm not fat, just big boned...
There is a large thread with much laughter and skepticism over at rcuniverse.
/ key_/tm.htm
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3729699/mpage_1
Just like a jet fighter.
That's why you build the control algorithm into a $10 10MHz microcontroller - it can compensate faster than humans.
The gas mileage on these things is going to suck, right when gas hits $10-20:gal when they finally arrive. Maybe jetpacks and flying cars will inspire inventors to produce alternate energy sources for them, just like Rudolf Diesel originally planned for the engine he invented.
--
make install -not war
At normal speeds the fuel lasts a bit longer than that.
PS: Jeremey Clarkson said the fuel only lasts 11 minutes at full speed, I don't know who's right, but at least he's driven one.
PPS: In Germany/France there's no speed limit on many roads. You could drive it faster in Europe than on a "speedway" (whatever that is) and the police will most likely just wave you on.
In Italy there's limits but if you're in a Bugatti they'll probably let it pass.... save the tickets for the people who drive Mercedes/BMWs.
No sig today...
Don't know about reserve tanks, but helos have another option to get down in a somewhat controlled fashion if the engine goes out. It's called autorotation.
Jango Fett got beheaded by Mace Windu when his jetpack failed to ignite after he got run over by a Reek. Boba Fett got digested by a Sarlacc after Han Solo blindly whacked his jetpack, sending him ricocheting off Jabba's barge.
Jetpacks in the Star Wars Universe are about as advisable as superhero capes in The Incredibles' world.