Jet Pack!!!

[buglerbilly]

Probably zero Tactical use but it sure looks good.................

N.Z. firm launches jetpack venture

For Washington area commuters who have the means, relief from gridlock might not be too far in the future.

New Zealand-based Martin Aircraft Co. announced a $12 million joint venture to produce what it's billing as the world's first commercially available jetpack.


The Martin Jetpack (Martin Aircraft Company)

The Martin Jetpack (Martin Aircraft Company)In a news release, the company, which said it has been developing the pack for almost 30 years, says it will build the jetpacks outside New Zealand and aim to produce 500 a year. Company officials said the firm is still seeking capital investors.

The jetpack, which would travel at up to 63 mph and fly as high as 8,000 feet, runs on gasoline. Its five-gallon tank would give it a range of about 32 miles. A two-stroke, two-liter V4 engine puts out about 200 horsepower.

It also comes equipped with a parachute and retractable undercarriage, stands about 5 feet tall and weighs in at about 530 pounds.

The jetpack, which falls under the Federal Aviation Administration's ultralight classification, would not require a pilot's license to operate in the United States, but the company does require purchasers to complete a training program.

And the cost, which the company said is based on how many are produced, would be about the same as a high-end car or motorcycle - around $90,000.

The company envisions that its first sales would be to emergency responders and the military, but said the jetpacks might become available to the public as early as this year.

[Riđđu]

"The Martin Jetpack has been designed to meet the requirements of the FAA Part 103, Ultralight Regulations. The Ultralight class does not require an FAA recognized pilots license."

What, all pilots don´t need a license to fly in America?! :eek:

[Weasel]

"The Martin Jetpack has been designed to meet the requirements of the FAA Part 103, Ultralight Regulations. The Ultralight class does not require an FAA recognized pilots license."

What, all pilots don´t need a license to fly in America?! :eek:

No, why would they?

All those YouTube vids of US fighter jocks eating hamburgers and having a coke while sitting in a multi million dollar jet is just normal behavior. They don't actually know how to fly it. There are also those civilian pilots who overshoot their destination because they are too intent on surfing the web. That is normal too. :P

cheers

w

[ADMk2]

The company envisions that its first sales would be to emergency responders and the military, but said the jetpacks might become available to the public as early as this year.



I do not care how much they pay me. I am NOT wearing that thing. I'll take the stairs, thank you very much...

8000 feet? I have zero intentions of emulating this lunatic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yFb3QdH5X4&feature=related

[ARH v.3.1]

I do not care how much they pay me. I am NOT wearing that thing. I'll take the stairs, thank you very much...

8000 feet? I have zero intentions of emulating this lunatic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yFb3QdH5X4&feature=related

Well that was boring! Where was the explosion?!

[buglerbilly]

NZ jetpack lauded by Time magazine

November 15, 2010 - 6:24PM

A jetpack being developed by New Zealander Glenn Martin has been listed as one of Time magazine's 50 best inventions of 2010.

The Martin Jetpack has been 30 years in the making and while it was still in the final stages of research and development, it has been successfully tested at low altitudes.

Time said although it looked like a couple of leaf blowers welded together, it was positioning itself as the world's first "practical" jetpack.

NZ's Research, Science and Technology Minister Wayne Mapp said the Martin Jetpack had captured people's imagination and was helping put New Zealand innovation in the international spotlight.

"Glenn's breakthrough approach to the use of ultra-high efficient fans and vector control means that he has solved a problem that has beaten everyone else.

"There is no doubt that there will be a wide range of practical applications for the technology he has developed," Mapp said.

The machine has a 200 horsepower, two stroke engine and it is estimated it will be able to fly at 2400 metres with a range of 50km.

Martin, who has been focusing on fine-tuning its safety aspects, is set to run field tests on it next year.

© 2010 NZPA

[buglerbilly]

Latest news on the Martin Jetpack..................

Lift-off for strap-on flying machine

April 13, 2011 - 2:47PM .


$75,000 a piece ... The Martin Jetpack.

Only a lottery win away! *Sigh* :thumbsup

George Jetson fans take note: the wait for your very own jet ski in the sky is nearly over, according to the New Zealand company behind an ambitious aeronautical project.

The Martin Jetpack, literally a strap-on personal flying machine, is now in the final stages of development, with the first machines to be dispatched for solo flights by the end of the year.

Military agencies, border control and rescue organisations in the United States will be the first to use the pricey $NZ100,000 (about $75,000) aircraft.

Inventor Glenn Martin predicts it will be just 18 months before other wealthy enthusiasts get their delivery.

"We've had 2500 people sign up for one so far, and plenty of them from Australia," Mr Martin told AAP.

Their plans for the expensive toy range from practical - "some just want to dodge the rush-hour traffic and do it in style" - to the purely frivolous.

"We know of someone that would love to do stunts flying across Sydney Harbour. How amazing would that be?" Mr Martin said.

The jetpack resembles two leaf blowers welded together but its capabilities are much more complex. The two-litre, jet-powered engine can soar across the skies at 100km/h at heights of up to 50 metres.

Carrying enough fuel to fly for 30 minutes, the contraption could be used in hard-to-access areas and war zones to patrol borders and, if unmanned, to make difficult deliveries by remote control.

"Some of that might sound boring but where there's huge cost savings and an increase in efficiencies for agencies it's actually hugely exciting," Mr Martin said.

Recreationally, it could be used to go fishing and, one day, get to work.

For now, however, it is categorised as a microlight so it cannot be taken into the city centre, however this may change under US law.

Martin's machine, lauded as Time magazine's most anticipated invention last year, has been more than three decades in the making.

The Christchurch man began tinkering with the concept in the 1970s, inspired by the limited success of the US Bell Rocket Belt, which stayed airborne for just 26 seconds before crashing.

A gas-guzzler in the extreme, the belt burned through $US2000 worth of fuel in 30 seconds.

Martin's latest and most celebrated version, unveiled at an air show in 2008, is more fuel efficient, costing just 15 US cents for 20 seconds in the air.

It was designed to be the "simplest aircraft in the world," said Mr Martin, who has described how "you strap it on, rev the nuts out of it and it lifts you up off the ground".

"It's basic physics. As Newton said, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So when you shoot lots of air down very fast you go up and you're flying."

He said the interest had been overwhelming, with inquiries coming from Middle Eastern royalty, US business tycoons and European daredevils.

The Australian government hadn't officially registered its interest but, judging by website traffic, the Australian Defence Force was a fan.

"It's the fourth biggest visitor to our site after Boeing, NASA and the SAS, so something's going on there," he said with a laugh.

"Maybe they've just got an employee who thinks it's so cool they spend all day checking it out."

AAP

[ADMk2]

Not really. NZ$100,000 is only about AUD$15.00...


:)

[buglerbilly]

Actually its $75,000 and that's AUD$56K+.................to be precise! :razz :razz :razz

[Gubler, A.]

What a POS. What is with the obsession with 'strapping' it on. Not as if you could walk anywhere with it.

Been done...

[buglerbilly]

Nah the Hiller was a POS................at least this one, the Martin, has 30 minutes duration which is a Hell of a lot more than most any other...............besides, I don't really view it, at this stage, as anything more than a gimmick, a very nice little gimmick but still a gimmick.

[Gubler, A.]

Nah the Hiller was a POS................at least this one, the Martin, has 30 minutes duration which is a Hell of a lot more than most any other...............besides, I don't really view it, at this stage, as anything more than a gimmick, a very nice little gimmick but still a gimmick.

I don’t know how anyone can write off the Hiller and rave about the Martin unless you don’t know anything about aircraft engineering. Both are essentially the same: VTOL ducted fans in which flight is achieved by offsetting gravity via downwards thrust of the fan. But the Hiller design is always going to be lighter and therefore able to carry more payload (fatter pilots and more fuel for range) than the Martin because it is a much simpler design. The Martin has two ducts rather than one, a backpack assembly and flight control via aerodynamic controls. The Hiller uses counter rotating blades in a single duct, stands the pilot on top of it so the only structure needed is a roll over bar and a grate to stop you stepping into the blades and achieves flight control via kinaesthetic. So rather than expend weight and cost on complex controls you just lean in the direction you want to fly. Since the machine is below you and there is also no need to break your legs absorbing a landing of higher descent rate than usual. The only problem with the Hiller was that it is too stable. So it’s harder to get it to sustain forward flight because it always wants to right itself. However this can be easily offset by adding a pitch vane under the fan. Such a structure could be immensely simple and would be operated like a hand brake to get the platform in a forward flight attitude and out of it.

Of course if you want to fly in style then you can’t beat the Williams X-Jet. Half turbofan, half dalek, forget your Segways this is the personal transport system of the future!

[buglerbilly]

Oooh look, a Flying Pykel Washing Machine! :razz :razz


I don’t know how anyone can write off the Hiller and rave about the Martin

Easy, it appeals to my sense of the bizarre.............wot's aerodynamics got to do with that?

[Gubler, A.]

You want Bizaroo, why didn't you say so. This is Zimmerman's (the designer of the Hiller platform) "Flying Shoes"



Though maybe it should be called the "Ankle Biter"...

[buglerbilly]

:wtf :outahere

Too strange, even for me...................

[buglerbilly]

AND we have another contender (whether it actually flies or not?)..............

Meet the Australian-made Hoverbike - but can it fly?

Ben Grubb

June 14, 2011 - 1:35PM


The Hoverbike. Photo: Supplied

Just like Back to the Future's Hoverboard, a Sydney-made Hoverbike could soon be what we're all riding to work.

Made by an Australian man, the flying bike - which has sceptics questioning its validity online - has a weight of 105 kilograms without fuel, its rotors are made of Tasmanian Oak and it will be able to hover an estimated 10,000 feet above the ground.

But, according to its creator, Chris Malloy, 32, from North Ryde, it was not targeted at "recreational use". It was more tailored for use at wildlife parks, in films, cattle mustering, search and rescue and aerial surveying, he said.


Chris with the Hoverbike. Photo: Supplied

Mr Malloy has so far only released one video of the Hoverbike showing airflow visualisation using smoke but it does not show it flying. On his hover-bike.com site he says he's working on producing a video but in the meantime swore by still pictures showing it flying albeit strapped to the ground, saying they weren't doctored by a photo editing program like Photoshop. In a phone interview he said he didn't see the "necessity" in releasing video footage. "People can wait."

He said he had been wasting many hours of his day "answering people's questions" on its validity.

With a maximum takeoff weight of 270kg, the Hoverbike is estimated to reach an airspeed of 150 knots (278 km/h) and travel 148km on a primary tank of fuel at 80knts cruise (290km with secondary tanks installed), according to his website.










The Hoverbike. Photo: Supplied

Mr Malloy, who works at an optical engineering company in Sydney, has spent the last two years working in his garage on the bike, which he originally estimated could sell for $US40,000 ($37,660) in production runs of 100.

Speaking with Fairfax Media today, though, he said it was more like $70,000 if he was to do a production run of 20 at a time, which he is planning to do if he receives the $1.1 million in investment he is after.

At present, he's only received $1800 in donations through his website, investing just under $70,000 of his own cash.

In two months time, after receiving some of the required parts, Mr Malloy plans to unstrap the bike from the ropes that attach it to the ground "to see what happens" and test whether it flies steadily. So far, he said, he hadn't "really been able to have a completely stable hover" in tests conducted with it strapped to the ground.

Mr Malloy said the idea came to mind when he was learning how to fly helicopters in 1999. He said manoeuvrability in the air was an issue, of which his Hoverbike aims to fix.

"It's certainly a viable product," Mr Malloy said. "It just takes time and money."

His original intention was to get the Hoverbike free flying and "show that to the world and get potential investors to invest to take it towards the production stage, which is harder than the flying stage".

He was now "at the stage where I need funds" and couldn't afford to do the production on his own.

Since he went public with the idea he said he had been "swamped" with inquiries and was using "16 hours out of every day" to respond to them.

As for regulatory requirements, Mr Malloy said there was "no category" that the Hoverbike went under in Australia. "It could fall under multiple different categories," he said.

He said he would need to "sit down at length" with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority before publicly selling it.

It comes after New Zealand man Glenn Martin plans to sell his own line of jetpack for $NZ100,000 ($A75,000) by the end of the year.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/cartech/meet-the-australianmade-hoverbike--but-can-it-fly-20110614-1g17x.html#ixzz1PENlGC75