Inventor creates jetpack which can travel at 60mph

Published: 9:46AM GMT 10 Mar 2010

Glenn Martin, 50, has released details of the deal with an unnamed international aircraft company for the world’s first commercial jetpack.

More than 500 Martin Jetpacks will be manufactured each year but there is already a waiting list of one year as commuters scramble to get their hands on one.

The machine costs just £42,000 but is expected to revolutionise the military and be taken up by emergency services worldwide.

It is driven by two 200 horsepower propellers and can travel at 60mph for up to 30 miles on a full tank of fuel.

And users should have no problem scaling over traffic black spots, with the jetpacks reaching heights of 7,800ft in test flights.

Unbelievably, buyers will not even need a pilots license because aviation laws say the jetpacks are not heavy enough to require one. Each jetpack, when empty of fuel, weighs 18st (113kgs).

However, it will give environmentalists a headache. The five foot by five foot five inch device burns 10 gallons of fuel per hour five times as much as the average car.

Glenn Martin, from Martin Aircraft Company, in Christchurch, New Zealand, said: “When I was a kid I dreamed of flying around in a jetpack, just like most five-year-old children do.

“I put that to one side as I was growing up, as you do. Then in 1981, when I was 21 and at university, a conversation came up about why we are not flying around in jetpacks.

“So I used the university system to look at it and discovered the old Bell Rocket Belt that we have all seen used in movies and at the opening of the Olympic games.

“But it only flew for 26 seconds and not only that, you had to weigh less than 70kgs (11st). I weigh almost 100kgs (16st) so that was never going to work for me.

“So in my spare time at university I researched it and to cut a long story short, came up with mathematical formulas and a design of a machine that could fly for about half an hour and lift a decent sized person.”

Now 29 years later, he has come up with an simple to fly jetpack that can lift 120 kgs (19st).

Mr Martin said: “The most common question we’ve had is When can I have a go? And now someone with reasonable co-ordination can come in and within 40 minutes of training, be up in the air and stable.”

source : www.telegraph.co.uk

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Submited at Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 11:00 am on Uncategorized by danis
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