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Rocket Men
theodp writes "Slate reports on the guys who really, really want to fly, who got together the other week at the Niagara Aerospace Museum for the First International Rocketbelt Convention. To date, only 11 men in history have free-flown a rocketbelt (aka JetPack). More men have walked on the moon. Why? 'It's not a matter of if you get hurt, it's when,' says Eric Scott, an ex-stuntman who's in the exclusive club."
Linux needs to get its act together
/tmp or the installer will dump core. After the installer is done, edit /etc/X11/XF86Config and add a section called "GL" and put "driver nv" in it. Make sure you have the latest version of X and Linux kernel 2.6 or else X will segfault when you start. OK, run the Quake 3 installer and make sure you set the proper group and setuid permissions on quake3.bin. If you want sound, look here [link to another obscure web site], which is a short HOWTO on how to get sound in Quake 3. That's all there is to it!"
Linux is *not* user friendly, and until it is linux will stay with >1% marketshare.
Take installation. Linux zealots are now saying "oh installing is so easy, just do apt-get install package or emerge package": Yes, because typing in "apt-get" or "emerge" makes so much more sense to new users than double-clicking an icon that says "setup".
Linux zealots are far too forgiving when judging the difficultly of Linux configuration issues and far too harsh when judging the difficulty of Windows configuration issues. Example comments:
User: "How do I get Quake 3 to run in Linux?"
Zealot: "Oh that's easy! If you have Redhat, you have to download quake_3_rh_8_i686_010203_glibc.bin, then do chmod +x on the file. Then you have to su to root, make sure you type export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 but ONLY if you have that latest libc6 installed. If you don't, don't set that environment variable or the installer will dump core. Before you run the installer, make sure you have the GL drivers for X installed. Get them at [some obscure web address], chmod +x the binary, then run it, but make sure you have at least 10MB free in
User: "How do I get Quake 3 to run in Windows?"
Zealot: "Oh God, I had to install Quake 3 in Windoze for some lamer friend of mine! God, what a fucking mess! I put in the CD and it took about 3 minutes to copy everything, and then I had to reboot the fucking computer! Jesus Christ! What a retarded operating system!"
So, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that what seems easy and natural to Linux geeks is definitely not what regular people consider easy and natural. Hence, the preference towards Windows.
skateboarding how? I guess the large price tag already proves you can get laid, so you don't need to do flip tricks and grinds.
Looks like you can't fly and smoke.
Whatever happened the jet pack technology that NASA was working on back in the 1970's? Saw it on the "Six Million Dollar Man" TV show.
These people need computer-controlled gyroscopic stabilizers. A fly-by-wire system could dramatically improve the safety of rocketbelts. No doubt that would make them much more popular.
Oh no. No. No. I'm a ROCKET MAN!
Theres a guy who flies these jetpacks called the GoFast Rocketman.
hes sponsored by the Go Fast Sports and Beverage Co.
I wonder if he can do the pelvic thrust and Heuuugh?
The link I pointed to contains a movie of him in action (and other stuff).
liqbase
Why is it called a rocket "Belt", when it's typically something the size of a surfboard with a pair of propane tanks that you strap on your back?
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I for one welcome our new rocketman overlords!
Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of rocketbelts?
I'm going to build my own rocketbelt. With blackjack. And hookers!
In Soviet Russia, the rocketbelt flies you!
I like my coffee the way I like my women - roasted and ground up into little tiny pieces.
To date, only 11 men in history have free-flown a rocketbelt (aka JetPack)
Make that 12, your forgetting Duke Nukem.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
I'm sure they're available. Well, two of them anyway. When using a rocket belt always make sure there's not a solid brick archway above your head. http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/articles/cont ent/a3033/index-9.html/
It's understandable that in 1961 the pilot needed to fly the rocket belt with only his own reflexes and semicircular canals to guide him.
But even in the late 1960s my aero-and-astro student colleagues told me that even the Boeing 727 was too unstable to be controlled by a human pilot using reflexes alone: it relied on "yaw dampers," servo mechanisms that amounted to electronic analog computers, to tame the raw behavior of the plane.
The Boeing 777 is a completely "fly-by-wire" design.
It seems to me that it ought to be possible to design microprocessor-controlled rocket belts that would be much easier and safer to fly than those of the 1960s. (Including, of course, electronic active noise cancellation in the helmet to provide at least some reduction of the "deafening noise 3 feet three feet from his ear."
Trying to fly the rocket belts described in the strikes me as rather like trying to fly a full-size, exact model of Langley's Aerodrome. It may be possible--for someone with the reflexes of a Santos-Dumont and the nerves of an Evel Knievel--but it's still just a stunt. The Wright Brothers achievement was ''not'' building an aeroplane that could get off the ground; it was building an aeroplane that they ''and others'' could get (relatively!) ''safely'' off the ground.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
To date, only 11 men in history have free-flown a rocketbelt (aka JetPack).
According to the Wikipedia article, at least one woman (Isabel Lozano) has flown one as well (happened almost a month ago).
As to why haven't more people flown the device, take a look at Isabel's pictures, and you'll see that had to make a custom cast of her body for the mounting hardware the device uses. Also, for some reason many people may not feel very comfortable with jets of gas at 740 C venting at supersonic velocities mere inches from their body.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
The (strange/interesting/sad) part of this story is how far out the people involved are. I noticed there was no mention, either in the Slate article or the actual convention website, of these guys who claim to have the only functional rocket belt in existence. Then there's Juan Manuel Lozano, the Mexican inventor who claims to developed a break-through method for creating the 90%-pure hydrogen peroxide fuel needed for the rocket belt.
And then there's the whole RB2000 saga, which involved fraud, murder, and the disappearance of the only prototype. The full story can be found on the rocketbelt.nl site. Rocketbelt developers are out there on the edges with the ufologists, perpetual motion researchers, and free energy salesman, with the exception that rocketbelts can actually work!
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
This video describes a propulsion system used in some rocketbelts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnIihCSF9vE Apparently high pressure hydrogen peroxide, is forced by high pressure nitrogen through a grill of silver (a catalyst to the breakdown of H2O2). This breakdown produces water and oxygen, and as any chemist will tell you, quite a lot of heat. The water (at this point high pressure steam) and oxygen of course have a much higher volume than the H2O2 and are therefore forced out of the direction thruster thingies... This is quite a clever little propulsion system, I think I'd like to build one.
If your anywhere in the Niagara region, definitly worth checking out one of the cradles on modern aviation and aerospace, Bell Aerospace that is. All pretty much featured at the mueseum and then some.
I found out recently that one of the 11 rocketmen will be at this year's X-Prize Cup in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Here is another website with some interesting rocketman videos and info. Warning, a lot of the videos look like they are from the 80's... :^)
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Very light jets!
2006: The year of the very light jet
Very Light Jet Magazine
The Light Jet Age
OK, so they are a $1-2 million. That's a lot of money. From what I've read, however, these jet packs aren't that cheap either. (They're not mass produced so the price hasn't dropped at all.) If you bought part of a jet as a time share, with say 20-50 other people, the price drops significantly. It is a viable option for some people.
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I read that as "Nigeria" and the mind instantly conjured up a story of a failed African aeronautical company that left millions in a bank account that I can somehow get my greedy little hands on. Oh well.
Now that Smith solved the first problem, I think I can solve the second. Or, to be precise, I can point to someone who has already solved it. The Scaled Composites hybrid engine used in spaceshipone offers better thrust/weight ratio than peroxide or propane, it can be made quite small, and it is throttleable.
Ok, what's the third problem?
Yowza!!!
Take flying lessons. Really. It's a lot safer. If you're 16 years old and your instructor signs off, you can even fly solo.
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
It's just like riding a bicycle!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
To date, only 11 men in history have free-flown a rocket-pack
I take it this excludes burrito dinner + sparks accidents?
Table-ized A.I.
This article reminds me of the very first time I was tricked into seeing goatse. It was an article similar to this, something to do with riding in/on/with amature rockets. Somebody posted, "You have to be careful, otherwise you can have horrible accidents, such as this [link]." I naively clicked it and screemed out, "hollllly shiiiit. Arrrrrrg!"
I would like to hear your initiation story....
Table-ized A.I.
It should really come as no suprise to anyone that these things aren't safe. The stabilization is completely manual and let's face it, you get the aim off, and you can be in real trouble. This is definitely something best flown over really soft, flat terrain.
They also have a really short range. Something like several hundred feet, maybe 1000. Still, they're very cool to watch, and that in itself is the only reason it ever needed to be invented. They got some use on several TV shows back in the 70s and I seem to recall one being flown at a Superbowl.
Hard to believe something that cool was built in the 70s and nobody does anything like that 30 years later. How sad is that?
Segway-like control software might actually make these devices fairly safe.
yawn. what a colossal bore you goat.cx types are.
Well it worked for me every time in "Rocket Ranger" on my Amiga all those years ago....
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
If this technology where available to the masses, the nazi-men would invade our country like a swarm of flying Mary Poppins. Its up there on documented film.
How could so many of you be so blind?
I want to be retired when I grow up.
Wingsuiter Sets Benchmarks in Human Flight http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/ 2724291.html?page=2
Given that small TurboJet engines are commonly available for model aircraft these days, is it now feasible to build a TuboJet pack rather than a dangerous hydrogen peroxide rocket pack?
The average weight of a man is about 190 pounds.
BMV jets (http://www.bvmjets.com/) supply a turbojet that can provide 50lbs of Thrust.
Turbine Thrust (lbs) Diameter Weight (lbs) Price JetCat P-200 50 5.12 5 $4,995.00
With 2 banks of 3 JetCat P-200's strapped to your back you would have 300lb of Thrust to play with. That should be enough to cover the weight of the man, the engines and a reasonable amount of fuel.
Or is there some flaw to this idea? Do these model jet engines only generate 50lbs of thrust when they are travelling at some speed through the air?
A stream of ambulances were seen emerging out of the Niagara Aerospace Museum where the First International Rocketbelt Convention is being held.
EMS Workers reported a high occurence of burnt bottoms...
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Get out of the plane!
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It surprises me to see little discussion of the performance differences between a jet and rocket engines. Clearly a rocket is never going to be able to provide thrust for any reasonable amount of time. I saw an article in Popular Science in the 70's that talked about a jet pack with a running time of up to 45 minutes.
Jet packs are surely less reliable than a simple hydrogen peroxide system that only requires that valves open in order to work, but the lure of free flight for minutes instead of seconds should have inspired someone to expend some effort in this direction.
Why hasn't it?
In the last couple of pictures, there is clearly a hoist and a line attached to her.
The Video page returns a page not found error.
-- my sig got
I remember that they used to do Bell Rocket Belt demos on the road. I think Keds sneakers sponsored a tour in the 60's where the Keds Rocketman(?) would fly into baseball stadiums. If that was one guy he must have had quite the frequent flyer miles.
There was also a rocket belt fly in and landing at the opening ceremonies of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. I remember watching the behind the scenes documentary where the manager told the costumed mascots that the rocket guy would be physically hot so they shouldn't try to touch him.
There was also a young guy interviewed on the radio long ago who claimed to have a company that was going to make commuting by rocket belt routine. He said you would land on the roof of your office. I knew then that you had like 90 seconds of fuel so you had to live pretty close to work. The guy was young and slick enough that he wasn't mere wacko. He was prolly fishing to fleece investors.
Bell had a famous demo film where it looks like the Bell rocket belt pilot is flying for as long as he wanted. He flies under a bridge dipping his feet into the water. They admitted later that they stitched together dozens of short flights to make the sequence.
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
Everytime the subject of flying cars or similar comes up, someone always rolls out the argument, "If I can't deal with the idiots who are on the road now, I can't possibly imagine having those same idiots flying around above me."
But people said similar things about the first automobiles. And about the first airplanes. And so on, and so forth. That's a social resistance to change that can be overcome.
It seems to me that catastrophic failure in mid-flight is more an engineering challenge. Do you deploy parachutes? Could there be a fine-grained failure sensing system that instantly forces a landing when it senses trouble? How about a shroud of airbags like those that landed Pathfinder on Mars? A creative engineer could certainly solve this problem the same way creative engineers have solved every other problem.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
It's the surviving that's hard.
I'm thinking, if you combine this with BASE jumping, you'd have the ultimate thrill with ultimate danger!
"To date, only 11 men in history have free-flown a rocketbelt (aka JetPack)"
"Make that 12, your forgetting Duke Nukem."
I'm pretty sure Duke Nukem is a woman. I once saw Duke Nukem peeing sitting down.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
Are only good at a high enough altitude that they have time to deploy. You would need an airbag style parachute (explosion forces parachute to come out and one to open it). They also add weight & bulk to an already Heavy jet pack
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I always thought the worst danger was that you had less than 40 seconds of fuel. That's barely enough time to pick a safe landing spot. It's essentially a forced landing every time. Not safe.
So, what do you do besides fly around a stadium for less than a minute before the device becomes dead weight? Well, that's dull, and useless except for advertising or Bond flicks.
You have to land, somewhere appropriate before you run out of fuel. It shouldn't be hard, but then again, imagine a helicopter with the same constraints. Would you fly it? I wouldn't, and helis can even autogyro a little, unlike a rocket belt which will drop like a stone. That is inherently unsafe. Get in your car with about 40 seconds of gas. Now drive somewhere, stop and get out, before you run out of fuel.
Maybe there are other dangers, but a forced landing is not something I'd ever ask for.
Are there other dangers worse than the forced landing problem? Wow. I'm in no hurry to try a rocket belt. Urban base jumping sounds safer and more fun. Jumping off a tall building in a city with a chute/parasail isn't exactly safe, and it pisses the cops off, but I'd rather be in jail than pancaked with a rocket pack through me like a stake in the ground.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
Actually, my dream is of someday flying like a bird WITH magic!
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The so-called rocketbelt uses Silver Idodide and Hydrogen Peroxide to make Silver Oxide in a rather nasty but highly energetic chemical reaction. Until Silver goes down in price, don't expect to see this in wide use.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
This definitely looks harder than the jetpack in "Worms: Armageddon".
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com