The Martin Jetpack

Every now and then some brilliant human on the planet Earth comes along and builds 'the future'. I speak of course to Glen Martin, developer of the Martin Jetpack (see picture - Figure 1). This human, took a dream and a thought and came up with, first a working prototype and now a full production model, Man Portable Flying Machine. WOW!

Figure 1

This 'jetpack' really works and my hat off to the brilliance of Glen Martin and his family (who was involved from the beginning) and the design, testing, flight and support team he's put together.

From all media accounts, the American military and various government agencies in the U.S. along with a number of other well healed and foreign governments are interested in buying the $75,000 USD jet pack. Not a bad price when you consider what you're getting. If enough of you buy my books, I may just have enough change after to pick one up.

From New Zealand, Glen Martin is poised to take the human race to new heights with a jet pack that can attain an altitude of 50 meters and fly for 30 minutes on a full tank. This may not sound like much, but think of the possibilities for the military, commercial and recreational sectors for such a man portable machine. Again, WOW!

The Martin Jetpack is the world’s first 'practical' jetpack. Its been created using what they call a 'purpose-built' gasoline engine driving twin ducted fans. The power of the light weight motor and fans will lift a pilot in vertical takeoff and landing as well as providing sustained flight for 30 minutes.

The website (http://martinjetpack.com/) describes the jetpack as, ".....creating a new segment in the aviation and recreational vehicle markets. Initially designed with the leisure market in mind, commercial demand for the Martin Jetpack has seen the research and development programme focus on readying the product for use in a number of sectors including emergency response, defence and recreation, with numerous applications in each sector."

There are two versions, an unmanned remote-controlled (UAV) version (field trials were to begin in the second quarter of this year), and the manned version. The latest media reports say that final production models are expected to begin rolling out by the end of 2011 (first to the US military for testing) and I look forward to seeing that.

For now, I'll leave you with a video of the latest tests..... Congratulations again to Glen Martin and the Martin Aircraft Company, developers of the Martin Jetpack.