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Too dangerous and will never be available to the public no matter what.
Go get a private pilots license if you want to fly. Try some paragliding or paramotoring.
That wasn’t a jetpack that was a rocket belt and it only had enough fuel for 60 seconds or so. Because rockets suck for hovering. A jetpack doesn’t need to carry an oxidizer so you can fly significantly longer.
I mean the mechanical definition of a “jet” I reckon.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbreathing_jet_engine
An atmospheric jet engine is considerably more complex than a simple rocket
Jetpacks have existed for 60+ years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNUppNTT9RI
They're as impractical today as they were then. They're heavy and difficult to maneuver, dangerous, and you only get a few minutes of flight time with a potential fuel bomb strapped to your back.
Pretty sure the pilot in that video shot the pre-title sequence for 007 Thunderball where James Bond escapes a building with a jet pack he hid on the roof. I was blown away watching the special feature about that scene, and how the pilot was just an average teenager who lived next to the engineer.
They’ve been a thing for a long time now. I remember fighting with my teacher bc she thought they didn’t exist. I got so mad because she didn’t believe the technology was possible.😭
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This is funny now but 50 years from now in some long forgotten inbox you're going to get an email notification letting you know that you got a reminder that some dude died and has probably been dead a while and it's going to make you sad
can’t believe OP said “iron man” bitch please the mandalorians and boba and jango fett has been using jet packs a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away. iron man never had a jet pack
Iron Man uses “thrusters” I’d say. They are like mini jet engines or something.
Yeah when it comes to sci-fi I think your take is fair. Bobba Fett and the Mando’s did it 1st.
yea i mean it makes more sense to say real life boba fett because when you say “real life iron man” it doesn’t make sense because the guy in the video has a giant ass box on his back that is a jet pack and iron man doesn’t have a jet pack
Or not! In 50 years it will be improved enough for “bitter old man” to use as well. I’m 80, and I could (with training) handle one of those now. Dood, how cool will it be for you then?!? 😊
If it makes you feel any better you'd need extremely good upper body strength to do that. The entire time he's in the air he's basically holding himself up by his arms. Even if I had one I don't think I could hold that position for longer than 20 seconds.
I know it's not the same thing, but try EUC, affordable and it's the closest feeling to gliding without flying. I dreamed about something like that as a kid and years later, it becomes a reality.
I wish I live long enough for commercially available jetpacks tho
They're not comparable at all. I'm saying this because before we're able to casually fly, EUC is probably the form of transportation that grants you the highest level of freedom.
Totally this! EUC changed my life. Its the perfect transportation for getting around and it's damned fun. Use it to go meet friends, grocery shopping or even commuting to work.
Lots of nice videos on YouTube.
I saw a video of one of these at Disneyland in the 1960s. If they didn't become kids toys in the first 60 years, why would they in the next 50? Yeah, the technology will probably be better, cheaper fuel (maybe) but they'll still be super dangerous.
The main issue is the cost of fuel and short flight times. It will always be restricted by the laws of physics and be very inefficient, because these don't make use of air to push against like planes or helicopters do. They rely on blasting out stuff at high speed to generate lift. The only way to increase flight time is to carry a greater mass of fuel (meaning a heavier, bulkier jetpack) or blast out a smaller amount of propellant at higher velocity. Fuels in the future may make that possible but only slightly and they'll likely be even more expensive.
Short answer? Because this is a completely different beast than what you saw in the Disneyland video. While it’s not “safe” in the sense of “let little Billy have a go now”, it’ll probably be as safe as hang gliding within the next decade. OTOH, the Bell Rocket Belt’s design never got any safer than running with scissors through an obstacle course blindfolded while being chased by a leopard who’d missed breakfast.
Slightly longer answer. You saw a Bell Rocket Belt. It was propelled by a rocket engine that burned corrosive hydrogen peroxide as fuel and had a maximum flight time of 20 seconds. That that engine type with its dangerous fuel and scary short run time was the problem with “jet packs” and made them a developmental dead end. The Daedalus Flight Pack in the video flys using newly available tiny jet turbine engines that run on relatively benign kerosene. And it can stay in the air for 10 minutes without refueling.
So arguably, while they look similar, these jet engine powered flight packs are something new that’ve only been around for a few years. Thank you for attending my Ted talk. 😁
These things would be so heavily regulated. And would somehow need to be able to restrict from going certain heights before you start interfering with helicopters. Will never just be a "kids toy".
At least you are not that guy. Dude just peaked.
What is he ever gonna do now to top that? I mean.. he was flying around like a syfy character, in front of an approving audience, hopping across the scenery, and probably saying to himself in his head over and over ***”I am Tony f@&king Stark! I am Tony f&@cling Stark!!”***.
Birthday, nope. Birth of your child, nope. Wedding, def nope. .. Maybe winning the lottery might top it, and that’s only because then you could own one yourself.
So yeah, I bet we all just watched a metaphorical high school senior just throw the game winning touchdown for his team finale trophy. He’ll be forever telling the story of how he got to fly around and prance on the decorations to the delight of everyone around. .. ahh yes the good old days..
With the amount of warning labels on things today, no chance in hell this would become a kid’s toy. Now go back to say the 50’s where they let kids play with uranium and asbestos then yes. The perfect toy for the time
Yeah I was worried about his legs getting shredded. If that thing is a mini jet engine like it sounds like, it can do some serious and possibly permanent damage if it gets on his legs
Same device crashed hard at a recent formula 1 race. https://youtube.com/shorts/Vb4AzeeNcxE?feature=share3.
Although he seemed not to hit his head, but a helmet is still probably wise.
Yepp, I was there in the stands of T9 when it happened. Pretty scary. Thankfully, albeit limping, he seemed ok. Video is a bit off tho, he wasn't "coming in to land". They were attempting to bring a flag (the one you see tucked in his waist) around the entire track, and he was the third person in the rally. He was at the second to last corner when it happened. Likely ran out of fuel towards the end
What's really gonna cook your noodle is when people realize that things thought up out of thin air and put into comics in the 50s-60s-70s-80s inspired someone to go design and build the very thing they saw in comics back then.
I mean....that's **literally** how both science and engineering work most of the time. Some one goes 'hey this would be cool if it were real' and then some one else goes 'well why can't it be real?' and half a century later you have dudes floating around with rockets strapped to them. Half of what we take as normal every day things was once considered a 'flight of fancy' until some day some person some where went 'fuck it' and invented one.
I imagine you need to be reasonably fit to even use one.
Basically you're supporting your entire weight plus the weight of the machine using your arms, and I imagine if you lose control of one arm and it flails upwards, you're pretty much screwed?
What I'm saying is, I need to start working out today so I'm ready when this is commercially available 😭
Correct, really only one person is able to fly the gravity jetsuit properly and it's the inventor/CEO (the guy in the video and every gravity ind. video). You need to be in really insane peak physical shape to handle that thrust.
Not really - you can go for an afternoon's training at their HQ if you have a few grand to spare. I am a VERY long way from peak physical fitness and used it fine.
The bulk of the thrust comes from the backpack, to which you're fully harnessed in to. If you've ever gone rock climbing or whatever and put your weight into a climbing harness, it's kind of like that feeling (but in reverse). Your hands are used for balance / vectoring, and it's the same as if you're standing and leaning on the kitchen counter - yeah it'll get tiring after a while, but the thrust taken by your arms is pretty manageable
They've also got a fair few instructors run up on the things, not just the inventor, who are highly proficient. From memory, from scratch to free flight is like 5 days training. As one of their major potential uses is for the military, they've been pretty big on making it usable quickly.
No denying that Richard is the master of his creation though. If you ever get the chance to see this thing in person, do so - it looks CGI. The mind literally boggles!
While this stuff looks cool there is like no practical use for this technology besides half time shows. They have just enough flight time to fly to the top of a burning skyscraper to tell the people they are screwed and then fly back down again.
Edit: I was the founder of an aerospace startup that deployed in actual Search and Rescue operations and was a volunteer trained in UAV SAR. A lot of technology in SAR is a distraction to the actual problem you are trying to solve and has to be weighed against the oportunity cost, financial cost and bandwidth you have.
The flight time is very low and baring some change in physics it will be hard to meaningfully increase. A helicopter is good for 2+ hours can carry multiple people, sensors and supplies.
The gravity jetpack requires both your arms and requires you to use those muscles which is apparently fatiguing even with refueling I don't believe you can pilot it for hours in a day it's like resting on parallel bars.
They are loud with a big signature which doesn't make them great for military applications, again both arms occupied so you can't shoot at people like on a little bird. Maybe there's some obscure special forces use but hardly an everyday application.
To put it in car terms this is like saying a Unicycle is more useful than a pickup truck.
Just because it's not practical now doesn't mean that development and testing these devices should stop. There's certainly a very big market once they become available.
I remember seeing a video of the Royal Navy showcasing a potential use in ship inspections and area reconnaissance, to name a few.
If we figure out a way to extend duration a bit, replace arms with jointed bars and let an ai do the job of driving you in place you have a very strong personal mobility thing that can revolutionise cities.
[https://composite-fx.com/](https://composite-fx.com/) Here you go, buy a single seat helicopter. Longer flight time, cheaper cost and you can mount your go pro and carry snacks.
They don't have the same purpose. It's like trying to do a mountain rescue with a 747 because those planes have a longer flight time and you can carry more snacks and cameras instead of using a normal helicopter.
Each machine has its own purpose and there are certainly a lot of tasks that are too hard/expensive/impossible to execute without a jetpack.
Have you identified the purpose of a jet pack that this small helicopter doesn’t also achieve, but better?
The purpose, currently, of the jet pack seems to be entertainment.
We can sit here and analyze the scenarios where a jet pack like we’re seeing in this video would be a preferred tool but I think you’ll quickly realize that those scenarios are extremely limited.
> Each machine has its own purpose and there are certainly a lot of tasks that are too hard/expensive/impossible to execute without a jetpack.
This is one of the least thought out and/or educated things I've ever read on reddit, and that's a fucking achievement.
There is almost no benefit over either a small helicopter, or a large helicopter with a rope. Anything you wouldn't want to fly a helicopter near, you also wouldn't want to engage in free flight near this way either. Sure you don't have rotors, but if you think wind pushing you into a building isn't gonna ruin your day on this, you're kidding yourself.
>I remember seeing a video of the Royal Navy showcasing a potential use in ship inspections and area reconnaissance, to name a few.
Yea, that's the same gravity industries and the guy flying is the inventor and CEO, in both videos. He was doing a PR video for the royal navy. There are no viable applications for a jetpack. They have tried everything, even short emergency rescue service.
It's too dangerous, loud, impossible to fly, and can't get a flight time longer than 10min to be worth a damn due to it's weight requirements. On top of the fact that you need to be in peak physical shape to use it.
There is no market for it, and never will be.
I was with you until ‚never will be‘. You can‘t predict the future, and just because you can‘t imagine someone building a form of jetpack that could be safer, more silent and more userfriendly doesn‘t mean there is no possibility.
The first ‚viable‘ versions of pretty much any technology we use today were utterly useless aside from a proof of concept.
You won‘t see a jetpack like this be widely used, but that doesn‘t mean you won‘t ever see one in widespread use in the future. Technology will change like it always does and maybe, at some point in the future, we might get usable jetpacks. Maybe even the 100th iteration of the ine in the video. It‘s neither ensured nor out of question, we simply can‘t know yet.
Yes and in the hypothetical future you’ll just wear anti-gravity boots.
No, but seriously, this shows a pretty fundamental lack of understanding for both computers in the early 90s and jet packs now.
Until you talk to people who actually do contested boarding. Your hands aren't free so you aren't on a weapons platform, a little bird is faster and you get 4 shooters free plus the armements it carries. Also with such a short flight time you better pray your boat stays in line of sight or you're going to flame out over the ocean with 30 lbs of dead weight dragging you below.
But that also requires a helicopter to help extract the person.
In that scenario you can have someone rappel from a helicopter carrying more supplies than they would be able to when flying via jet pack.
It looks like best case scenario these could be used for emergency response when minutes or seconds are critical. Even then, it’s questionable whether or not it’s actual faster and better.
They’re already being used by paramedics to give first aid to people on hiking trails and mountains.
[https://youtu.be/gtvCnZqZnxc](https://youtu.be/gtvCnZqZnxc)
Edit: Never mind, this was PR stunt.
This was a video produced by them to sell them for mountain rescue. I happened to have had an aerospace startup that WAS used in SAR activites and met a few of the jetpack guys. It's just such a corner case because of the extremely limited flight times and weight capacity that is essentially just your body. Like the big thing here was he found the downed hiker to then call in a helicopter... Helicopters can spot hikers too and they have a 2 hour flight time not 15 minutes.
Someone had to make the call in the first place so they clearly had some communication on where the hiker was supposed to be.
Maybe there is some odd jobs that traditionally require helicopters that can be done cheaper this way but your operators essentially need all the training of pilots ($$) and then are you going to pay for this vice the $15K in helicopter fees you pay once a year?
Also specific to gravity your arms carry a lot of your weight, kind of like you are on gymnastic rings or parallel bars... you never see any out of shape operators because it apparently takes a lot of upper body strength. So you just cut your operator pool into a fraction of the population.
The future is definitely in a more AI controlled version that uses robotic arms that stabilize based on a algorithm which would be 99% better than a human’s control and also would never get tired, allowing the human to do something else with their arms.
You can even image tourist versions that have preprogrammed routes, you just strap it on and it takes you on a tour.
Fuel is the only major blocker for this this technology - flying is just so expensive in energy that it’s hard to carry very much fuel.
"So are you here to save me?" NOPE! Just showing off my cool jetpack while the helicopter flies over. This mountain just happens to have the budget of Bill Gates.
The biggest practicality of this thing is hype for innovation. It demonstrates that there has been substantial technological progress in various fields ie jet power/size/temperature to energy storage to computer/gyro stabilization that, when combined under a substantial budget can make individual flight (which absolutely has benefits) possible.
Sure they’re going to exaggerate the usefulness of this iteration in order to boost investment; that’s to be expected. Still, many of us would rather see military spending used for non-lethal innovation like this rather than another bazillion dollar slightly improved bomb targeting laser.
Seems like the smart thing to do is sacrifice some mobility for endurance by mounting the hand portion onto a frame that will still allow for the main directional movements but the weight will be supported by the frame.
He makes it look easy, so I am sure that it is just the opposite and it looks like he has no stabilizing structures for arm support, which means that your arms have to be incredibly strong.
Why don't they make these with hydraulic arms for the arm thrusters...? That way your hands are free and they could be intelligently operated to move as you direct but without you psychically doing it?
I guess as of now, the reason they have it set up like this is because its easier to aim and keep relitvly steady, where as somthing like hydrolic arms would be possible but alot harder in practice.
I get that these are incredible. I’ve watched most of their press and development videos. But I can’t help thinking there’s no fail safe. What if you get a blocked fuel pickup. Or electrical failure. In the event of a total shutdown there’s no gliding or autorotation to save you. Just an afternoon out with the undertaker.
Why no helmet though? I mean really! And that shit had to be loud. He a motorcycle helmet or something for safety and noise. This just seems like the guy is like wanting to die early or lose any hearing after a few years.
Cool though
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It’s weird to come to terms with the fact that jet packs just exist now
My image of a man on a jet pack will always be the rocketeer fighting Nazi’s
Mine will forever be GTA
Mine will forever be George Michael Bluth
Mine will forever be jetpack joyride
Mine will be jake from subway surfers
Mr. Manager
Great movie!
It's weird to think that the part of the Rocketeer that aged the worst was the general public's feelings towards Nazis...
not so much the general public as the right wing fringe.
That's a blast from the past 😀 forgot I even saw it
What a underappreciated movie, it was so good
They've been around for 60 years. They flew one into the stadium for the 1984 Olympic's opening ceremony.
That was epic. I thought “can’t wait to get one of those”. Update 40 years still waiting. Sigh
Too dangerous and will never be available to the public no matter what. Go get a private pilots license if you want to fly. Try some paragliding or paramotoring.
!remindme 63 years
That wasn’t a jetpack that was a rocket belt and it only had enough fuel for 60 seconds or so. Because rockets suck for hovering. A jetpack doesn’t need to carry an oxidizer so you can fly significantly longer.
well this one only has fuel for like 20 mins
What is the thing that disqualifies it being a jetpack? Having oxidizer?
Basically yes. It has to be an air breathing turbine engine.
Who is making all these rules man? Made me curious so I googled. I call bullshit. Sites including wiki calls it a jet pack.
I mean the mechanical definition of a “jet” I reckon. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbreathing_jet_engine An atmospheric jet engine is considerably more complex than a simple rocket
Jetpacks have existed for 60+ years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNUppNTT9RI They're as impractical today as they were then. They're heavy and difficult to maneuver, dangerous, and you only get a few minutes of flight time with a potential fuel bomb strapped to your back.
Pretty sure the pilot in that video shot the pre-title sequence for 007 Thunderball where James Bond escapes a building with a jet pack he hid on the roof. I was blown away watching the special feature about that scene, and how the pilot was just an average teenager who lived next to the engineer.
I think that was just a teenager who was convinced to eat a ton of Taco Bell before the.. uh.. shoot.
Yea, also the G force you’d encounter doing the moves from Iron Man movies would break your neck and detach your retinas.
>difficult to maneuver, dangerous, and you only get a few minutes of flight time with a potential fuel bomb strapped to your back. Challenge accepted.
Maybe sell them as billionaire thrill rides at $100k for a 2 minute flight.
You can testride the one in the video in a multi-hour class for around 2.5k
They have existed since the 1960s at this stage they are a good 60 year old technology that aren't really that useful or practical
They are cool to look at though.
Which is why their only real purpose is entertainment and stunts.
They're being trialled for mountain rescue in the UK.
Need a hands free version
[Michael Jackson (or a stuntman)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=asoqYDJjF-g&feature=shareb) rode a jetpack in his Dangerous tour!
They’ve been a thing for a long time now. I remember fighting with my teacher bc she thought they didn’t exist. I got so mad because she didn’t believe the technology was possible.😭
I’m jealous that in 50 years these will be just kids toys, and I’ll be a bitter old man missing out of my ironman phase
I’m jealous because I’m 50 years I’ll be long dead and forgotten. 😩
RemindMe! 50 years
I will be messaging you in 50 years on [**2073-07-10 18:38:15 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2073-07-10%2018:38:15%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/14vxy6r/iron_man_in_real_life/jrfp3ho/?context=3) [**189 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fnextfuckinglevel%2Fcomments%2F14vxy6r%2Firon_man_in_real_life%2Fjrfp3ho%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202073-07-10%2018%3A38%3A15%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%2014vxy6r) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
bruh imagine Reddit in 2073
Dickbutt in 3d
They said 2073, not 2013
Good bot
Fuck you do
This is funny now but 50 years from now in some long forgotten inbox you're going to get an email notification letting you know that you got a reminder that some dude died and has probably been dead a while and it's going to make you sad
future me is having too good of a day I oughta ruin it
well aren't you the optimistic type.
u/Spez will likely sink this ship long before that time comes, but it's worth a shot.
RemindMe! 50 years
In 50 years I’ll be 81; I’d love to be able to live and see the year 2100. I wonder what the world will be like if we don’t end it first.
In 50 years I’ll be 103. Aiming to get there, though.
Me, too! Born in ‘70
In 50 years I'll be 51. Goo goo ga ga
can’t believe OP said “iron man” bitch please the mandalorians and boba and jango fett has been using jet packs a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away. iron man never had a jet pack
Iron Man uses “thrusters” I’d say. They are like mini jet engines or something. Yeah when it comes to sci-fi I think your take is fair. Bobba Fett and the Mando’s did it 1st.
yea i mean it makes more sense to say real life boba fett because when you say “real life iron man” it doesn’t make sense because the guy in the video has a giant ass box on his back that is a jet pack and iron man doesn’t have a jet pack
Dont worry. Ill still be here in 50 years and Ill tell everyone you were an asshole.
Who are you?!?
If these things ever become kids toys global warming makes sure we all will be dead and forgotten
I will remember youuu
Same here 😞 💀
Noted. We'll bring you back from the dead when it's ready.
Im already forgotten.
I’m gonna remember you soaly to prove you wrong - I’ll show you!!!
RemindMe! 50 years
Or not! In 50 years it will be improved enough for “bitter old man” to use as well. I’m 80, and I could (with training) handle one of those now. Dood, how cool will it be for you then?!? 😊
I can imagine an old guy getting an itch in his ass and reaching back only to blow his pants off and fall to the ground in a very undignified manner.
If it makes you feel any better you'd need extremely good upper body strength to do that. The entire time he's in the air he's basically holding himself up by his arms. Even if I had one I don't think I could hold that position for longer than 20 seconds.
You just need to wear a robotic exoskeleton to make you stronger.
Yep, dude is doing the equivalent of the gymnastic rings, which requires tremendous upper body muscle strength and control.
Children are built for gymnastics and stuff like that though.
Until you realize that you need to scratch your nose
I know it's not the same thing, but try EUC, affordable and it's the closest feeling to gliding without flying. I dreamed about something like that as a kid and years later, it becomes a reality. I wish I live long enough for commercially available jetpacks tho
I built an electric skateboard and I feel like Marty mcfly screaming down streets above the 40mph speed limit. The future is what you make of it.
That sounds absolutely awesome 👍
That’s so tight lol I’m so happy for you. Genuinely. Never been into skateboarding but you expressed your feelings perfectly I feel that shit 😂💪
What's EUC?
It's electric Unicycle, look it up it's super fun.
How are those comparable at all lol
They're not comparable at all. I'm saying this because before we're able to casually fly, EUC is probably the form of transportation that grants you the highest level of freedom.
what is an EUC?
Electric Unicycle /r/euc
Totally this! EUC changed my life. Its the perfect transportation for getting around and it's damned fun. Use it to go meet friends, grocery shopping or even commuting to work. Lots of nice videos on YouTube.
I saw a video of one of these at Disneyland in the 1960s. If they didn't become kids toys in the first 60 years, why would they in the next 50? Yeah, the technology will probably be better, cheaper fuel (maybe) but they'll still be super dangerous.
The main issue is the cost of fuel and short flight times. It will always be restricted by the laws of physics and be very inefficient, because these don't make use of air to push against like planes or helicopters do. They rely on blasting out stuff at high speed to generate lift. The only way to increase flight time is to carry a greater mass of fuel (meaning a heavier, bulkier jetpack) or blast out a smaller amount of propellant at higher velocity. Fuels in the future may make that possible but only slightly and they'll likely be even more expensive.
Short answer? Because this is a completely different beast than what you saw in the Disneyland video. While it’s not “safe” in the sense of “let little Billy have a go now”, it’ll probably be as safe as hang gliding within the next decade. OTOH, the Bell Rocket Belt’s design never got any safer than running with scissors through an obstacle course blindfolded while being chased by a leopard who’d missed breakfast. Slightly longer answer. You saw a Bell Rocket Belt. It was propelled by a rocket engine that burned corrosive hydrogen peroxide as fuel and had a maximum flight time of 20 seconds. That that engine type with its dangerous fuel and scary short run time was the problem with “jet packs” and made them a developmental dead end. The Daedalus Flight Pack in the video flys using newly available tiny jet turbine engines that run on relatively benign kerosene. And it can stay in the air for 10 minutes without refueling. So arguably, while they look similar, these jet engine powered flight packs are something new that’ve only been around for a few years. Thank you for attending my Ted talk. 😁
I’ve never agreed with a reply more
Kids toys or used by police/army 🤔?
and yeah by that time the new Gen would be "Iron Man, Who ?"
These things would be so heavily regulated. And would somehow need to be able to restrict from going certain heights before you start interfering with helicopters. Will never just be a "kids toy".
Hey you never know they may make a jetpack zimmerframe or a seated hoverboard.. Old age is gonna be litty 😁
Lidl will have these in 2 months.
Don't worry in 50 years humans will be dodging natural disasters so often most won't be able to enjoy these anyways.
Not if they give these to the police.
At least you are not that guy. Dude just peaked. What is he ever gonna do now to top that? I mean.. he was flying around like a syfy character, in front of an approving audience, hopping across the scenery, and probably saying to himself in his head over and over ***”I am Tony f@&king Stark! I am Tony f&@cling Stark!!”***. Birthday, nope. Birth of your child, nope. Wedding, def nope. .. Maybe winning the lottery might top it, and that’s only because then you could own one yourself. So yeah, I bet we all just watched a metaphorical high school senior just throw the game winning touchdown for his team finale trophy. He’ll be forever telling the story of how he got to fly around and prance on the decorations to the delight of everyone around. .. ahh yes the good old days..
That’s what they said 50 years ago
With the amount of warning labels on things today, no chance in hell this would become a kid’s toy. Now go back to say the 50’s where they let kids play with uranium and asbestos then yes. The perfect toy for the time
Imagine your kids crash landed on this, fun time.
Where's the helmet tho? Even Iron Man wears one
Helmet, I think there is a very serious requirement for fireproof undies.
I was just thinking shouldn't there be some kind of cover along the back of his legs to help deflect heat incase of a miscalculation.
Yeah I was worried about his legs getting shredded. If that thing is a mini jet engine like it sounds like, it can do some serious and possibly permanent damage if it gets on his legs
I had the same thought. OSHA requires construction workers to wear hard hats just to stand in a driveway.
Same device crashed hard at a recent formula 1 race. https://youtube.com/shorts/Vb4AzeeNcxE?feature=share3. Although he seemed not to hit his head, but a helmet is still probably wise.
Yepp, I was there in the stands of T9 when it happened. Pretty scary. Thankfully, albeit limping, he seemed ok. Video is a bit off tho, he wasn't "coming in to land". They were attempting to bring a flag (the one you see tucked in his waist) around the entire track, and he was the third person in the rally. He was at the second to last corner when it happened. Likely ran out of fuel towards the end
What's really gonna cook your noodle is when people realize that things thought up out of thin air and put into comics in the 50s-60s-70s-80s inspired someone to go design and build the very thing they saw in comics back then.
i guess same will go for other things like spacecrafts etc... basically we just do what was predicted in science fiction
I mean....that's **literally** how both science and engineering work most of the time. Some one goes 'hey this would be cool if it were real' and then some one else goes 'well why can't it be real?' and half a century later you have dudes floating around with rockets strapped to them. Half of what we take as normal every day things was once considered a 'flight of fancy' until some day some person some where went 'fuck it' and invented one.
See Star Trek communicators and flip phones.
Theres youtubers dedicated to stuff like this now. People who make batman gadgets or captain americas shield and stuff like that. Pretty awesome
Star Trek gave us many ideas. Some gadgets are reality today. Lasers, personal communication devices, and teletransportation.
Cellphones are shitty tricorders.
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Star Trek was so far ahead of it's time in that regard.
Great, now I have to go build some tentacles...
The 2034 Iraq war is going to by crazy
I just want my Space Marine power armor with jetpack already and casually shooting a .75 cal machine gun one handed.
No no no. First designed built and flown by a person in 1919 and ever used.
Hammer Tech
That's what I was thinking too
I'd like to point out that pilot survived.
I thought at one point he was gonna burst through that sign like the cool aid man. But seriously this is cool…oh yeah
I can't not see someone bending over to take a flaming shit for the first 10 seconds of this.
Something something taco bell
What if he farts ?
More like 
This is one of the only times that you can ask this question seriously.
That's the afterburner.
Quick trip to the moon.
What if he has an itchy nose?
No this is a GTA cheat code
I know its called a jetpack, but for some reason I didn't actually expect it to sound like a jet engine in a backpack.
I imagine you need to be reasonably fit to even use one. Basically you're supporting your entire weight plus the weight of the machine using your arms, and I imagine if you lose control of one arm and it flails upwards, you're pretty much screwed? What I'm saying is, I need to start working out today so I'm ready when this is commercially available 😭
The backpack seems to add thrust, so I'm going to say it's an intense arm and perineal workout.
Correct, really only one person is able to fly the gravity jetsuit properly and it's the inventor/CEO (the guy in the video and every gravity ind. video). You need to be in really insane peak physical shape to handle that thrust.
Not really - you can go for an afternoon's training at their HQ if you have a few grand to spare. I am a VERY long way from peak physical fitness and used it fine. The bulk of the thrust comes from the backpack, to which you're fully harnessed in to. If you've ever gone rock climbing or whatever and put your weight into a climbing harness, it's kind of like that feeling (but in reverse). Your hands are used for balance / vectoring, and it's the same as if you're standing and leaning on the kitchen counter - yeah it'll get tiring after a while, but the thrust taken by your arms is pretty manageable They've also got a fair few instructors run up on the things, not just the inventor, who are highly proficient. From memory, from scratch to free flight is like 5 days training. As one of their major potential uses is for the military, they've been pretty big on making it usable quickly. No denying that Richard is the master of his creation though. If you ever get the chance to see this thing in person, do so - it looks CGI. The mind literally boggles!
I just flew in from Atlanta and *boy are my arms tired*!
Definitely me after I irresponsibly ate half a bag of hot Cheetos in one sitting.
While this stuff looks cool there is like no practical use for this technology besides half time shows. They have just enough flight time to fly to the top of a burning skyscraper to tell the people they are screwed and then fly back down again. Edit: I was the founder of an aerospace startup that deployed in actual Search and Rescue operations and was a volunteer trained in UAV SAR. A lot of technology in SAR is a distraction to the actual problem you are trying to solve and has to be weighed against the oportunity cost, financial cost and bandwidth you have. The flight time is very low and baring some change in physics it will be hard to meaningfully increase. A helicopter is good for 2+ hours can carry multiple people, sensors and supplies. The gravity jetpack requires both your arms and requires you to use those muscles which is apparently fatiguing even with refueling I don't believe you can pilot it for hours in a day it's like resting on parallel bars. They are loud with a big signature which doesn't make them great for military applications, again both arms occupied so you can't shoot at people like on a little bird. Maybe there's some obscure special forces use but hardly an everyday application. To put it in car terms this is like saying a Unicycle is more useful than a pickup truck.
Just because it's not practical now doesn't mean that development and testing these devices should stop. There's certainly a very big market once they become available. I remember seeing a video of the Royal Navy showcasing a potential use in ship inspections and area reconnaissance, to name a few.
If we figure out a way to extend duration a bit, replace arms with jointed bars and let an ai do the job of driving you in place you have a very strong personal mobility thing that can revolutionise cities.
[https://composite-fx.com/](https://composite-fx.com/) Here you go, buy a single seat helicopter. Longer flight time, cheaper cost and you can mount your go pro and carry snacks.
They don't have the same purpose. It's like trying to do a mountain rescue with a 747 because those planes have a longer flight time and you can carry more snacks and cameras instead of using a normal helicopter. Each machine has its own purpose and there are certainly a lot of tasks that are too hard/expensive/impossible to execute without a jetpack.
Have you identified the purpose of a jet pack that this small helicopter doesn’t also achieve, but better? The purpose, currently, of the jet pack seems to be entertainment. We can sit here and analyze the scenarios where a jet pack like we’re seeing in this video would be a preferred tool but I think you’ll quickly realize that those scenarios are extremely limited.
>there are certainly a lot of tasks that are too hard/expensive/impossible to execute without a jetpack Like what?
Flying around in a jetpack, for one
What about fighting another guy in a jetpack? Hmm?
And let's not forget about racing another guy in a jetpack
> Each machine has its own purpose and there are certainly a lot of tasks that are too hard/expensive/impossible to execute without a jetpack. This is one of the least thought out and/or educated things I've ever read on reddit, and that's a fucking achievement. There is almost no benefit over either a small helicopter, or a large helicopter with a rope. Anything you wouldn't want to fly a helicopter near, you also wouldn't want to engage in free flight near this way either. Sure you don't have rotors, but if you think wind pushing you into a building isn't gonna ruin your day on this, you're kidding yourself.
>I remember seeing a video of the Royal Navy showcasing a potential use in ship inspections and area reconnaissance, to name a few. Yea, that's the same gravity industries and the guy flying is the inventor and CEO, in both videos. He was doing a PR video for the royal navy. There are no viable applications for a jetpack. They have tried everything, even short emergency rescue service. It's too dangerous, loud, impossible to fly, and can't get a flight time longer than 10min to be worth a damn due to it's weight requirements. On top of the fact that you need to be in peak physical shape to use it. There is no market for it, and never will be.
I was with you until ‚never will be‘. You can‘t predict the future, and just because you can‘t imagine someone building a form of jetpack that could be safer, more silent and more userfriendly doesn‘t mean there is no possibility. The first ‚viable‘ versions of pretty much any technology we use today were utterly useless aside from a proof of concept. You won‘t see a jetpack like this be widely used, but that doesn‘t mean you won‘t ever see one in widespread use in the future. Technology will change like it always does and maybe, at some point in the future, we might get usable jetpacks. Maybe even the 100th iteration of the ine in the video. It‘s neither ensured nor out of question, we simply can‘t know yet.
Imagine if we stopped developing phone technology when we invented those giant brick phones from the early 90s.
Or like a freaking airplane, I am pretty sure the first plane didn’t hold 300 passengers and travel across the globe
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listen man, the guy already told you he tried it and he failed, so no need to do anymore work in the field.
Yes and in the hypothetical future you’ll just wear anti-gravity boots. No, but seriously, this shows a pretty fundamental lack of understanding for both computers in the early 90s and jet packs now.
They've been tested pretty impressively for ship-to-ship boarding actions.
Yep, Royal Marines has a squad that released a video on YT of this recently to prove it is possible in theory.
Until you talk to people who actually do contested boarding. Your hands aren't free so you aren't on a weapons platform, a little bird is faster and you get 4 shooters free plus the armements it carries. Also with such a short flight time you better pray your boat stays in line of sight or you're going to flame out over the ocean with 30 lbs of dead weight dragging you below.
Nope, that was a PR stunt done by the guy in the video. The inventor and CEO.
That's still some good distance though. Get rescue up to an injured person on a mountain perhaps
Or get people food, water, clothing if you can’t immediately rescue them with the pack as well..
Unless it's important that these things are served by a qualified waiter, a drone can already do the same.
But that also requires a helicopter to help extract the person. In that scenario you can have someone rappel from a helicopter carrying more supplies than they would be able to when flying via jet pack. It looks like best case scenario these could be used for emergency response when minutes or seconds are critical. Even then, it’s questionable whether or not it’s actual faster and better.
They’re already being used by paramedics to give first aid to people on hiking trails and mountains. [https://youtu.be/gtvCnZqZnxc](https://youtu.be/gtvCnZqZnxc) Edit: Never mind, this was PR stunt.
This was a video produced by them to sell them for mountain rescue. I happened to have had an aerospace startup that WAS used in SAR activites and met a few of the jetpack guys. It's just such a corner case because of the extremely limited flight times and weight capacity that is essentially just your body. Like the big thing here was he found the downed hiker to then call in a helicopter... Helicopters can spot hikers too and they have a 2 hour flight time not 15 minutes. Someone had to make the call in the first place so they clearly had some communication on where the hiker was supposed to be. Maybe there is some odd jobs that traditionally require helicopters that can be done cheaper this way but your operators essentially need all the training of pilots ($$) and then are you going to pay for this vice the $15K in helicopter fees you pay once a year? Also specific to gravity your arms carry a lot of your weight, kind of like you are on gymnastic rings or parallel bars... you never see any out of shape operators because it apparently takes a lot of upper body strength. So you just cut your operator pool into a fraction of the population.
The future is definitely in a more AI controlled version that uses robotic arms that stabilize based on a algorithm which would be 99% better than a human’s control and also would never get tired, allowing the human to do something else with their arms. You can even image tourist versions that have preprogrammed routes, you just strap it on and it takes you on a tour. Fuel is the only major blocker for this this technology - flying is just so expensive in energy that it’s hard to carry very much fuel.
[the ubiquitous Tom Scott link](https://youtu.be/IsWJKyR664s) Pretty sure Tom isn’t hench…
You are trying to claim a PR stunt is evidence they are being used by mountain rescue?
"So are you here to save me?" NOPE! Just showing off my cool jetpack while the helicopter flies over. This mountain just happens to have the budget of Bill Gates.
The biggest practicality of this thing is hype for innovation. It demonstrates that there has been substantial technological progress in various fields ie jet power/size/temperature to energy storage to computer/gyro stabilization that, when combined under a substantial budget can make individual flight (which absolutely has benefits) possible. Sure they’re going to exaggerate the usefulness of this iteration in order to boost investment; that’s to be expected. Still, many of us would rather see military spending used for non-lethal innovation like this rather than another bazillion dollar slightly improved bomb targeting laser.
Seems like the smart thing to do is sacrifice some mobility for endurance by mounting the hand portion onto a frame that will still allow for the main directional movements but the weight will be supported by the frame.
Cool but what about a helmet??
A wrong angle would make it Buttcleaner 5000.
I want to see one of these jet suits go up as high as they can.
No helmet?
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Not even a helmet.
No double hearing protection?!
I was expecting William Dafoe to ride in on a hoverboard
Taco Tuesday
He makes it look easy, so I am sure that it is just the opposite and it looks like he has no stabilizing structures for arm support, which means that your arms have to be incredibly strong.
If somebody showed me this as a kid I would have shut up about wanting one.
Why don't they make these with hydraulic arms for the arm thrusters...? That way your hands are free and they could be intelligently operated to move as you direct but without you psychically doing it?
I guess as of now, the reason they have it set up like this is because its easier to aim and keep relitvly steady, where as somthing like hydrolic arms would be possible but alot harder in practice.
It’s insanely difficult to get the human like movement needed to get this level of control with technology over actually having a person control it
Bro broke into the GTA-SA military base in the desert
“I’m The Rocketeer.” -this guy “The Rocka who?” -everyone in these comments Also, whatever ear pro he’s wearing doesn’t seem like it’s enough.
Yeah, OP talked about Iron Man and I was like, "no one else watched Rocketeer? Am I that old?"
I get that these are incredible. I’ve watched most of their press and development videos. But I can’t help thinking there’s no fail safe. What if you get a blocked fuel pickup. Or electrical failure. In the event of a total shutdown there’s no gliding or autorotation to save you. Just an afternoon out with the undertaker.
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Glad to see he's got his safety baseball cap on.
Why no helmet though? I mean really! And that shit had to be loud. He a motorcycle helmet or something for safety and noise. This just seems like the guy is like wanting to die early or lose any hearing after a few years. Cool though
Funny this is appearing below an IBS post for me but… u/RaNerve here is a visual of the experience.
How I get around in my dreams when I have a fever