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.

Re:Interesting

[Brickwall]

$200,000? I'd rather wait and get a Moller Skycar for $500,000.

Of course, they've been promising that baby for five years now...

$100,000 Preorder... checks in the mail!

[jhfry]

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!

Re:FAA?

[lottameez]

Declare it an instrumental war-fighting tool in "the war against terror". Slam dunk baby.

Re:Skywalker is a great name for a jetpack

[StikyPad]

I can't believe nobody has pointed out that it wasn't the Skywalkers who used jet packs; it was Boba Fett.

Nerds indeed.

Re:Someone already has one

[texas_mustang]

I'd like to see someone pilot one of these. http://gprime.net/video.php/flyinglawnmower [gprime.net]

Re:Someone already has one

[AMSRay]

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.

Re:Insurance?

[Belial6]

The OP is likely confused by the difference between Liability insurance and Comp/Coll insurance. It has been a few years since I was extensively in the inusrance industry, but it was not uncommon for companies to offer very low liability insurance (the kind of insurance you must have) and very high Comp/Coll insurance (the kind of insurance you should have on any vehicle you value). I even saw a few companies where the cost cost of Comp/Coll on a $6000 bike was $14000 a year. This was because they did not really want to do Comp/Coll on motorcycles, but knew that many people would be required to get the comp/coll due to a loan. So, they priced the insurance so that only the stupid would buy it.

Re:FAA?

[SanityInAnarchy]

Hey, I'm getting there [nosdiet.com]...

17 minutes *at full speed*....

[Joce640k]

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.

Re:Back when I was still flying

[Wormholio]

In a low wing aircraft the fuel check is not just to see how much you have. You turn on the aux fuel pump, just in case the main pump fails during a critical flight period. You also switch to the fullest tank. You may have enough to land, but it does you no good if it's in the tank not selected.

Ideally you perform this check a few minutes out or more, before things get real busy, so that any consequences of the tank change can be dealt with (eg. didn't get the selector in the detent, water in the other tank, etc...)

Autorotation

[Anonymous Coward]

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 [copters.com].

Re:I can just see it now

[Atheose]

When you dive, the deeper you go the greater the pressure pushes on your lungs. If you have a full breath at 10 meters and dump your weights and swim to the surface without exhaling all your air, it will expand as you reach the surface and your lungs will explode. Just one of the 100+ ways you can die that they explain to you when you first get certified.