Be the Jetman: How to buy a Jetpack?

You saw how those guys flew with an A380. It's called being awesome. While watching the video, this were my precise thoughts:

Sadly, we cannot buy those used by Jetman. Yves Rossy doesn't plan to sell these - yet. His idea is to get close to perfection, to raise the bar of becoming totally free in air. 

Maybe, if you try hard enough, you can built one your own. Maybe.

If even you pull that off, these suits are not designed to take off from land. You would still need a helicopter and crew to support you. Jetman is being sponsored by various companies for marketing purpose; the main one being Breitling. A value close to a million dollars per year; is the entire operating cost Jetman. 

Yves Rossy has plans to built one wingsuit that will be able to take off from hill, just like a para glider.But this is in distant future.

Good news is that all is not lost for us.

My dear friend Mr.Deepak Pottanani Joseph (a.k.a. D.J.) told me about a jeptack we can buy.

"The MARTIN JETPACK."

Martin Jetpack is technically an ultralight airplane manufactured by Martin company from New Zealand. It uses ducted fan to fly. It has very basic flight movements, but hey this is the closest we can get to owning a jetpack. 

Martin jetpacks can fly upto 5000 ft (1.5 Km) at a speed of 40 mph (70 Kmph).

They go on sales next year at a unit price of 150,000 USD. Yup, costly. With 30 years of development cost, it's only logical that unit price exceed 100k USD. 

That being said, serious buyers can get these and fly around. 

The future of our own flying vehicles starts here. Let's be a part of it. 

Thank You guys for reading.

CK

Jetman

" The future of human flight is clear - completely autonomous like a bird. The real dream is to be completely free. Completely free." Yves Rossy (a.k.a. Jetman).

Yves Rossy's dream of becoming completely free in air has taken him to the heights of daredevil fame known as Jetman. He developed and built a wing-suit system comprising a backpack equipped with semi-rigid aeroplane-type carbon-fiber wings—with a span of about 2.4 metres (7.9 ft)—powered by four Jet-Cat P200 jet engines, modified from large kerosene-fueled model aircraft engines. (Ref: Wikipedia)

The system allow him to fly like an aircraft only that he use body mass to control the flight. Just like superman does. 

When I saw Jetman way back in 2009, I was astonished. It reminded me of the jet packs in GTA San Andreas. A wing with four jet engines mounted on carbon fiber wing. And instead of fuselage, there is a man. Amazing!

Me doing my graduate studies, wondered how he can pull this off. I mean it's definitely not like the one in GTA, where you have to take off like a rocket. And I thought maybe he invented new engines with some advanced complex chemical substance as its fuel. If it was just an RC model jet engine, others could have done it long time ago. 

The truth is, it was indeed an RC model jet engine. RC model jet engines are used in Remote Control (RC) jet model aircraft.

This aircrafts are very fast being powered by a miniature jet engine. Kerosene is being used a fuel. With RC plane flyers, flying a jet powered model is the ultimate dream. Check this video out to see how fast an RC jet engine really is :

Anyway, Jetman uses 4 of these. He didn't actually develop the system, it's a modified engine from Jet Cat (a leader in RC plane jet powered engine). 

The wings are specially designed to have maximum aerodynamic efficency while keeping the weight to strength ratio low. Carbon fiber is used for the wings.

After being fighter pilot and later an airline pilot, Yves wanted to take flying to next level. 

And he did. God bless, he did. 

It's one thing to develop and build. It's another thing to fly. 

 Without the clearance from authority he cannot fly. Yves system was licensed as an aircraft by FAA in 2011.

His recent flying with Emirates A380 is mindblowing:

Thank You Mr.Yves Ross for this awesome video!

Go behind the scenes : 

Yves Ross and his trianee did a flight over Dubai:

I also found him racing in Top Gear:

Watch this TED talk where he explains his system:

I wonder if there will be a time where we can buy these, strap it and just fly.  

Yves does this to push the boundaries of flight. It is a risk. But that should not keep anyone from exploring the possibilities. To achieve your dream. 

"If you have an idea or a dream , even if it's crazy, you should try it." - Yves Rossy.

Thank You for reading guys.

CK