For those of you who've lost hope that you'll ever have a robot butler or drive a hovercraft, here's a glimmer of possibility: a jet pack! Thunderbolt Aerosystems has developed the Thunderpack, a "rocket belt" that can propel you through the air at up to 75 miles per hour. Okay, so it will only fly for 45 seconds. And it'll cost you $100,00 to buy one. Then there's the fact that I'm sure a few safety-freakish representatives of Congress will do everything in their power to keep these out of the sky. But they're still jet packs, for heaven's sake!
Click here for CNET News.com's Thunderpack photo gallery.
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(Credit: Thunderbolt Aerosystems)First Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo unveiling and now a new jetpack? Somebody forgot to tell me that it's Worldwide Wacko Futurist Pipe-Dream Week.
A company called Thunderbolt Aerosystems announced this week the release of the Thunderpack, which "represents more than a decade's worth of effort to apply modern rocket fuels and propulsion technologies to create a practical and economical personal air vehicle." It'll fly you around for a total of 75 seconds. That's certainly an improvement over a jetpack at the Wirefly X Prize Cup in 2006 that could stay aloft for a mere 30 seconds.
Thunderbolt, which was founded by San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneur Carmelo Amarena as a strategy for dealing with a stressful commute, hopes that technological improvements within a year will enable up to 35 minutes of flight.
The machine can run on either "specially promoted" hydrogen peroxide in a dual-fuel mode (available starting in August) or standard high test peroxide (available in May). A dual-fuel capable jetpack has a longer flight time (the full 75 seconds, as opposed to 45 seconds) and can go faster (75mph compared with 65mph), giving it the ability to go twice as far on one tank--but that's still only about 3,600 feet.
With further development, though, Thunderbolt hopes that its jetpacks will ultimately be used for a "host of defense, commercial, and personal purposes, including support of military missions, disaster relief efforts, border patrol assignments, and even overcoming those snail-paced commutes." That's good, seeing as most of us live farther than 3,600 feet from our offices.
The market price for the dual-fuel Thunderpack is expected to be in the $100,000 range, with the high test peroxide model selling for $90,000.
Oh, please. For just twice that, I could spend a whole four-to-five minutes weightless in space aboard Richard Branson's suborbital party plane.
The Rocket Belt, left, vs. the Jet Pack H202
(Credit: Popular Mechanics)If there was ever a case where we would strongly encourage competition, this would be it--and the products in question have barely hit the market.
In March we lusted unabashedly for a Jetson-style "Rocket Belt" being developed in Mexico, but its $250,000 price tag put it slightly out of range for a Father's Day gift. Only a few months later, however, we learn that Jetpack International is offering a rival model that's "competitive priced" at only $155,000, according to Popular Mechanics. Still a tad steep for us, but that's a pretty good price trajectory.
The trajectory in the air, however, is less comforting. The Jet Pack H202 and the Rocket Belt can fly only for 33 seconds and 30 seconds at a time, respectively. As Jetpack founder Troy Widgery told the magazine: "If something goes wrong, you can get killed." We were planning on waiting till they shook out the bugs first anyway.
(Credit:
Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana)
We hope this isn't a hoax, because it's something we really want. Badly.
Everyone has fantasized about having a Jetsons-type jet pack, most likely while stuck in traffic. That supposedly can now become a reality, with a futuristic setup called the "Rocket Belt" from Mexico's Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana that's built specifically for your personal dimensions.
"The service includes a fully tested custom rocket belt, a machine to help you make your own rocket fuel, hands-on training including 10 flights in your own rocket belt and expert support," Luxist reports. Wait a minute ... make our own fuel? This just got a lot more dubious.
Even so, we'd still be willing to give it a go were it not for the price: $250,000. For that, we could rent a private jet.
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