Highest Human Elevation Using a Rocketbelt 208
Chris Gondek writes "Rocketman Eric Scott shot 46 metres into the air in London and promptly claimed a world record. Scott, 41, from Dallas, Texas, donned his red and white jumpsuit and zoomed into the north London sky in his bid to achieve the highest human elevation using a Rocketbelt. His feat, which saw him reach the equivalent height of a 12-storey building, lasted just 26 seconds but allowed enough time for a couple of pirouettes. The Rocketbelt was devised by the United States military in 1961 but has since been used for performances and displays around the world, including the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles."
Unlikely! (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously he hasn't seen Rocketeer.
Re:Unlikely! (Score:5, Funny)
Or Elton John.
Re:Unlikely! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Unlikely! (Score:1)
Re:Unlikely! (Score:2)
Re:Unlikely! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Unlikely! (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't that how satelites work?
Re:Unlikely! (Score:2)
Re:Unlikely! (Score:2)
Did anyone?
Re:Unlikely! (Score:2)
Tra la la lump a doo!
Why not do this... (Score:4, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
"Down" button? (Score:3, Funny)
"Cool your jets, Jetson (hehe). You'll come down when it runs out of fuel. That will happen soon enough, you'd better believe it."
Come on (Score:2, Funny)
Of course they're probably even less fuel-efficient than cars. I'll bet the environmentalists won't be happy.
Re:Come on (Score:2)
Re:Come on (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Come on (Score:2)
next record... (Score:3, Funny)
64 rocket men (Score:3, Funny)
64 rocket men on the pad, 64 rocket men. Launch one up, notify next-of-kin, 63 rocket men on the pad.
63 rocket men on the pad, 63 rocket men.....
Another Darwin Award Nominee (Score:2, Interesting)
Maybe you're the real nominee? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Maybe you're the real nominee? (Score:2)
rocketing downwards (Score:1, Funny)
But where... (Score:3, Funny)
A word from Ted Kennedy (Score:2)
Re:A word from Ted Kennedy (Score:2)
Quake Rocket Jump (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Quake Rocket Jump (Score:2)
Re:Quake Rocket Jump (Score:2)
It seems you are claiming the BFG really does exist?
Re:Quake Rocket Jump (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Quake Rocket Jump (Score:2)
Re:Quake Rocket Jump (Score:2)
Another plus was to put a pipebomb where you were jumping to, as to clear away enemies.
Good times.
Re:Quake Rocket Jump (Score:2)
In a completely related story... (Score:5, Funny)
---
"There's no I in Team." - Reporter
"Yeah, there ain't no we either." - Leon
Re:In a completely related story... (Score:4, Funny)
The Guinness book of Records is filled to bursting with pathetic 'qualified' records.
So if you're never going to get the world record for the 100 metres maybe you can get in as the world's fastest at the hundred metres while holding a cup in your left hand.
If you weren't the first person in the world to sail single handedly around the world then claim to be the first person to sail singlehandly around the world after setting out on a Tuesday.
And most pathetic of all. Weren't the first person to climb Mount Everest? How about the first American? Ok the first Woman? Or the first American Woman, no the first British Woman, oh has that already gone. The first British Woman to climb Mount Everest starting out on a Tuesay whilst holding a cup in your left hand then.
Re:In a completely related story... (Score:2)
I think that one IS in the 2003 book, page 734 if Im not mistaken!
That's not a rocket (Score:1, Funny)
man (Score:1, Funny)
Coincidence (Score:5, Funny)
Interesting, I too accomplished this feat with my imaginary girlfriend over the weekend.
He would have been able to go higher but. . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:He would have been able to go higher but. . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:He would have been able to go higher but. . . (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:He would have been able to go higher but. . . (Score:2)
Re:He would have been able to go higher but. . . (Score:3, Informative)
Re:He would have been able to go higher but. . . (Score:5, Informative)
Worms Reference (Score:1)
Parachutes and Rockets (Score:2)
Try http://www.local6.com/news/3022956/detail.html (Score:4, Informative)
Also seen in Thunderball (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Also seen in Thunderball (Score:2)
Re:Also seen in Thunderball (Score:2)
(Nowadays they wo
Re:Also seen in Thunderball (Score:2)
Re:Also seen in Thunderball (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Also seen in Thunderball (Score:2)
Too Bad 20 sec limit (Score:2)
These would be great for getting around if it weren't for the 20 second time limitation.
So if I have to compromise and give up on a having a rocket pack or flying car, can I get a MagLev skateboard instead?
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR! (Score:2)
Stir in crowds and typical human behavior, and things turn rapidly nasty.
Think about it. Say 10% of Long Island's tens of thousands of car-commuters buy air cars or rocket packs. Can you imagine the traffic control problems? No traffic signs, no colored lines, no stop signals. Unless you have automated governors that restrict you to certain flight paths, the skies at rush hour would look
Hi. I'm Troy McClure (Score:4, Funny)
H2O2+methanol (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder if anybody has looked into using the 50% peroxide/50% methanol mix that John Carmack is using in his rocket - could this increase the flight time?
Re:H2O2+methanol (Score:2)
So just pouring this over a silver screen or something similar and you've got rocket power?
Sounds kinda easy.
Re:H2O2+methanol (Score:3, Informative)
I suppose you could make a "rocket" by putting peroxide in a 2 liter bottle, thowing some silver (or bleach) in, and corking it.
But you would get the same result from baking soda and vinegar.
Re:H2O2+methanol (Score:2)
Re:H2O2+methanol (Score:2)
Wikipedia has an interesting article on hydrogen peroxide [wikipedia.org].
That's just a minor improvement (Score:4, Informative)
Adding fuel also increases the exhaust temperature, and if you're already in danger of cooking your legs with superheated steam this could be a problem. The system might require modifications to keep the pilot cool.
Propellants containing N2O4 or N2H4 are right out; you'd presumably like to survive an impact which bends the plumbing, assuming that you live long enough to get the thing fuelled up and launched in the first place. Both substances are extremely poisonous.
To really get long flight times you have to increase the performance well above what rocket propulsion can give you. You can go from rocket to venturi-assisted rocket, to rocket-driven turbofan, to straight turbofan, to helicopter. Each one represents an increase in lift*time per unit fuel, by moving more mass (in this case, air) at a lower velocity and thus decreasing the energy (proportional to v^2) per unit momentum (proportional to v). However, by the time you do this you're not really a "rocket man" any more, you're something else.
Re:NO4 and monomethyl hydrazine (Score:2)
I thought they were made by ACME (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I thought they were made by ACME (Score:2)
"Rocketman Eric Scott shot 46 metres into the air in London and promptly claimed a world record. Scott, 41, from Dallas, Texas, donned his red and white jumpsuit and zoomed into the north London sky in his bid to achieve the highest human elevation using a Rocketbelt." (emphasis added)
So Wile E.'s record still stands as the highest non-human elevation.
What is up with London? (Score:2, Funny)
David Blaine sits in a box by the Thames.
Rocketman out in north Londdon.
What's next?
Is there some kind of American law about being weird that Britain doesn't have?
Re:What is up with London? (Score:3, Funny)
(I kid, of course. There are some pretty weird Brits out there, too.)
By bye Branson (Score:2)
How long before Richard Branson gets the idea to try and try again to go 'round the world in a rocket belt?
Re:What is up with London? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:middle class = working class (Score:2)
Your semantics are wrong. "Working class" may be a euphemism to avoid the condescension of "Lower class", but it is the class which is concerned with working, not it's members. Like a walking stick doesn't act
Re:What is up with London? (Score:2)
Something tells me that, with people scaling the sheer cliffs of the local sidewalk, the Ministry of Silly Walks, Gumbies shouting, and other oddities, nothing anyone does in Britain would be viewed as "insane".
Re:What is up with London? (Score:2)
Here in Kansas we have that beat [dimensional.com].
Re:What is up with London? (Score:1)
Re:What is up with London? (Score:3, Funny)
You see, thanks to Red Ken's conjestion charge, a whole industry has been created to find a way around it. One of the many classes of exempt vehicles is the rocket pack (because it causes no conjestion, and a lot of the waste is water). It's now a common sight to see businessmen commuting to work with a rocket pack, umberella, and reinforced crash-bowler. Anyway, because of the popularity of these, the government has made sure the requirements for
Re:What is up with London? (Score:1)
James Bond's Gadgets (Score:2)
While there are one or two other Bond-related shows on A&E / Discovery / History / etc, I believe it was this particular show that spent time with the guy who now owns the speedboat from one of Brosnan's outings [bondpix.com], a history of the Rocketman pack and how it works (and what they're doing now), and one or two other "real world" items us
Coming up next (Score:4, Funny)
Sordid history of rocket belts (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sordid history of rocket belts (Score:2)
Your story says all the intrigue happened in 1995, and it remained unsolved. Too bad your story doesn't have a date on it. I'm curious-like.
guzzle, HICK, Zooommm! (Score:4, Informative)
Did anyone else notice that he is sponsored by Smirnoff Vodka? This is not a coincidence:P
An interesting (Score:2, Informative)
Highest Human Flight (Score:5, Funny)
Not a difficult 'Record' to beat! (Score:5, Funny)
From the article:
There were no records before. I am the first one in the books for the record so it is neat.
Basically, the story is "Man uses Rocketbelt and happens to measure how high he went."
Hardly Rocket Science.... (BaDum Tish!)
Sadly... (Score:3, Funny)
Pilotwings SNES game (Score:2)
It would have to be a pretty sophisticated belt in that game, though, as its fuel reserves kept the wearer aloft for a couple of minutes.
Not just the Olympics... (Score:2)
Terrifying (Score:3, Insightful)
With this, you have absolutely no chance of survival during a large portion of the flight if the thing quits on you.
I'd imagine it's too low to use a parachute, but high enough to kill you.
Re:Terrifying (Score:2)
Video here (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.rocketmaninc.com/videogallery.html
slashdot 'em for disabling rightclick to save!
http://www.rocketbelt.nl/
a two-stage award! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:a two-stage award! (Score:2)
confused (Score:2, Interesting)
~UP
video (Score:2, Informative)
Re:got him beat (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Military Technology (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds like another good use of military technology to me!
Compared to the uses to which military technology is more normally put, I'd say this is a really, really great use. Only one person is likely to get killed by this.
Re:Military Technology (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Military Technology (Score:2)
Hm I just did and I think it'd be pretty damn funny. "He went out with a bang!"
"It's raining men", indeed.
Man from Glad (Score:2)
Re:5 posts (Score:2, Funny)
Yes custom houses with 3 floors but no stairs you have to rockpack your way up.