Skywalker jet packs in development

No matter how played flying cars, kayaks, and other strange contraptions are, the allure of a jet pack strapped onto your back just doesn't seem to lose its luster. Rick Herron, creator of Skywalker Jets, has devised a rocket pack that weighs about 90 pounds and can propel a 200 pound pilot around the air for what is likely the most invigorating 5 minutes of their life. The crazy part is this thing actually works, and it doesn't get your backside all crispy in the process. Rick plans on producing a finalized model that has a range of about 4 miles and includes a GPS unit integrated into a HUD showing flight time and engine information among other things. A prototype build solicited a bid over 10 grand from a hopeful buyer (or helpless Star Wars fan), and this project hopefully won't end here -- Rick plans to get the device approved by the FAA and available to anxious customers as soon as possible, and the good news is that becoming a rocketeer will only cost you a cool $200,000 if it goes into production.

[Via Mobilewhack]

[ChristB @ Jul 31st 2006 5:34PM]

James Bond salutes you sir. Now get me the invisible Aston Martin and a martini.

[Jason @ Jul 31st 2006 5:44PM]

Also a good example of why Flash web sites suck.

[Matt @ Jul 31st 2006 5:56PM]

This reminds me of a Mythbusters episode. They tried to build a jetpack, but it failed to get more than an inch or two off the ground.

[LukeA @ Jul 31st 2006 6:16PM]

That looks safe. Real safe.

[trev @ Jul 31st 2006 6:17PM]

Jason - im not sure its fair to blame the medium for bad design ;)

That intro is hilarious >_<

[Eric Cartman @ Jul 31st 2006 6:19PM]

Will it lift a big guy like me i'm 400 pounds?

[scott @ Jun 23rd 2007 1:47AM]

You'll need two, one for each ass-cheek.

[Eric Cartman @ Jul 31st 2006 6:21PM]

Oh I guess I need the 16 engine model.

[Jonesin @ Jul 31st 2006 6:36PM]

"Have you ever wonder how do people move around in the near future?"

Human catapults. Just as safe, and much more eco-friendly.

[Squee @ Jul 31st 2006 7:26PM]

Well done. Looks like some one learnt how to use PowerPoint to make that site. Shame they couldnt change the music. Reminds me of something from one of those spacy, final frontier movies of old, when by the year 1999, we'll all be living on the moon and eating Space Dust(c) for breakfast.

What happens when you run out of fuel 100 metres in the air? That would be comical to watch. It'll be on YouTube within a month of this thing going out to the public. Watch this space!!!

[Squee @ Jul 31st 2006 7:27PM]

I for one, welcome our Rocket powered overlords.

All Hail!!!

[Aegis @ Jul 31st 2006 7:44PM]

Wow.. the dude looks like Darth Vader when Luke took his mask off at the end of Return of the Jedi... I'd want one of those packs just to escape!

On the serious side.. Would love one of those to get to work, I live on the other side of the harbour here from where I work, and there's no bridges, so every day I have to drive all the way around... going OVER would mean less than a 5 minute trip!

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 31st 2006 7:57PM]

Jethro made something VERY similar as I recall.

-ended up in the cement pond or something. It was a while ago.

[Nick @ Jul 31st 2006 7:59PM]

I want it so bad.

[Hap @ Jul 31st 2006 8:12PM]

Great concept...but...the cost of gas....:(

You Sir! Make the oil industry HAPPY. :)

[Steven @ Jul 31st 2006 8:15PM]

In 30 years or so, this will be a fad all of the kids will have, and it'll only cost $50,000!

[Jerry @ Jul 31st 2006 8:20PM]

$200,0000???? What a rip.

Those are 8 turbines from standard R/C jet planes.
At $3,000 each, that rig could be made for $30,000.
(Last year a UK group built a B-52 with 8 burning and it flew spectacularly until they crashed it.)

But since they'll need about 2 gallons of JP4 >EACH

[Aero @ Jul 31st 2006 8:28PM]

The scary part is that it probably falls into the ultralight category and does not require FAA approval.

[Alex @ Jul 31st 2006 10:12PM]

What happens when you run out of fuel in mid-flight? >.

[John Doe @ Jul 31st 2006 10:43PM]

"What happens when you run out of fuel in mid-flight?"

You die. Kinda obvious isn't it? :-P ;-)

[Xamboha @ Feb 19th 2007 12:07AM]

You could wear a parachute?

[oliver byrd @ Jul 31st 2006 11:10PM]

My commute to work just got allot shorter

[Bill @ Aug 1st 2006 12:03AM]

If you lose an engine on one side, do you turn into a human tornado, wreaking death and destruction to anything in your path? (I'm thinking that travelocity gnome, except with jets and spinning at 1500rpm).

[Captain Kirk of the Enterprise 101010101823 @ Aug 1st 2006 1:36AM]

Is he an engineer?
What is this guy's background again?
I read some where that some UK spankhead actually made a jet engine which he retro-fitted on to a grocery cart (http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004461787,00.html) I am pretty sure Skywalker Jet's (what a name) price would be substantially lower if he built the engines himself since spankhead made his under 50 UK pounds excluding gas. My two cents. Beam me up Scottie.

[NFW @ Aug 1st 2006 3:25AM]

Look at the bright side - if you run out of fuel in flight, you have the rest of your life to figure out how to land safely.

[bob_blah @ Aug 1st 2006 5:20AM]

This is all well and good until they figure out how to put road markings and traffic signals in the sky. Damn bureaucrats!

[yinch @ Aug 1st 2006 6:09AM]

This looks awesome. I would imagine that it would probably be worth the additional weight to include a parachute and a quick-release mechanism for dumping the jetpacks if they failed (Also please include a loud warning siren - maybe an airhorn - that goes off when the jetpack has been released - give the people on the ground a fighting chance to get out of the way).

Also it might be worth getting the GPS system to have gas stations marked on the map - cos dragging a 90 pound jet pack 5 miles to get your next flight is probably gonna be a pain in the ass.

y'06

[steviedee @ Aug 1st 2006 7:22AM]

there are a million things that will stop this going into production.

I'll name the obvious few.

BURNING PEOPLE-when this baby gets close to the ground, in lets say....Times Square, New York...or...Shibuya, Tokyo, theres gona be alot of heads of hair set alight....

RUNNING OUT OF FUEL IN THE AIR-most likely to cause death.

DUMB PEOPLE- people can barely drive a car...imagine a jet pack.....they'll be spiralling out into high rise buildings and trees before they can sue the company for thier own idiocy

ok, thatll do for now, if u want mor jus msg...

[Roger Born @ Aug 1st 2006 7:30AM]

Nice. But. I'm waiting for the Bobba Fett edition.

"Lysdexics of the world Untie!"

[TC @ Aug 1st 2006 7:41AM]

"Have you ever wondered how people move around in the near future?"
Well either this or the Tesla electric car. I wonder if the oil companies helped out with this one?

[Kaleb @ Aug 1st 2006 9:09AM]

Obviously, you can put an extra rocket that activates in the event of a fall, such as a lack of fuel or a failure. Just take an accelerometer to detect the fall and an altimeter to control the maximum flight altitude, and you're set.
Of course, all the Xtreme modders out there will want to reconfigure theirs so they can go faster and higher and scare the hell out of the rocketless humans on the street.

[Loban @ Aug 1st 2006 9:43AM]

"This reminds me of a Mythbusters episode. They tried to build a jetpack, but it failed to get more than an inch or two off the ground."

Actually, they didn't try to build a JETpack at all. There were no turbine engines on their device. They used a motor to drive two giant propellers. It was huge and very unstable. This thing looks like it uses small jet engines which would significantly reduce the weight and provide much more lift with more control.

[aeo @ Aug 1st 2006 11:02AM]

$200,000... Man, I can think of A LOT of other toys I could buy for 200G that would be way safer to fly or otherwise play with. One of these for instance: http://www.robinsonheli.com/. New price $209,000. You can get a hell of a lot more airtime for the money. Hey, if you've got 200G to drop, you can afford a helicopter license.

[richter @ Aug 1st 2006 11:53AM]

Sure it won't cook your back, but it looks like your arms will get real toasty.

Nevertheless, I -really- want one.

[eric @ Aug 1st 2006 12:15PM]

wow, I want to get a deathpack... err, I mean jetpack too!

[Jeff @ Aug 1st 2006 1:33PM]

I was wondering when someone was going to do this. What I would like to see is a cryogenicly cooled, LH2 powered jetpack. My completely baseless estimate is you could fly around for 30 minute with LH2.

Did you ever see the flying segway called the WASP? It was just a single jet engine pointed down, and you lean in the direction you want to go. Saw a picture of it once... go find it.

[Jeff @ Aug 1st 2006 1:35PM]

Here is a shot of the WASP:

http://www.strange-mecha.com/aircraft/personal/wasp.jpg

[jared @ Aug 1st 2006 2:25PM]

rotorcraft and jetpacks are in the same general category: aircraft that are constantly trying to kill the pilot, and only fail to do so given massive doses of highly-competent flying. fixed-wing stuff is dangerous enough, and it basically flies itself.

[Simon Waddington @ Aug 1st 2006 2:57PM]

These are not rocket motors - you can tell that from what he lists as fuel. Indeed there is nothing at all revolutionary about what he is selling. It is quite literally a JET-PACK i.e. a pack of jet engines.

All he realized was that for $5,000 you buy a 5lb jet turbine that weighs 5lbs, burns 24 oz of fuel a minute and gives up to 50lb thrust. As best I can tell all he did was bought a bunch of them (I expect he'd get a discount for buying in bulk), strapped them together with a big fuel tank and let them rip. Like I said nothing revolutionary.

See:
http://www.robart.com/Jetcat/P200.aspx

The clever part is to convince a bunch of people to write him a $100k check - maybe 10, perhaps more if he's luck and flee (by conventional aircraft) to Bolivia. Even he actually stuck around to sell these he'd still be enjoying a huge profit margin at $200k each! But he'll need it pay for the lawsuits that would follow after the first accident - the safety aspects are mind boggling. I wonder if he's thought about a fire extinguisher, quick release and parachute because you know there will be people who just go straight up, run out of gas and go straight down. Maybe that is what the GPS is supposed to do, but seriously I'll be this guy has done zero actual work on this other than mechanically strapping the jets together - he's probably just done about as much thinking on it as I have writing this critique.

Finally, homeland security will ban these in a twinkling of an eye. Last thing they need is RPG or bomb laden bin-Ladens, popping up and flying in a low altitude for our presidential appearances from out of no-where.

[Simon Waddington @ Aug 1st 2006 3:29PM]

PS. Here is his GPS unit... http://www.jetcatusa.com/gps.html

A $200 add-on from Jetcat.

Seriously, I don't think we'll be seeing Skywalker Jets flying through the air any time before we see Moller Skycars doing the same http://www.moller.com/skycar/ - these guys should get together because Moller probably has sufficient software and attitude control to make those turbines actually feasible. Then all he needs is a parachute...

[Gio @ Aug 1st 2006 5:00PM]

Hers how it works: I ignite the rockets, for lift-off the blast melts my legs and feet and I burn to death!

[Rafael Oliver @ Aug 1st 2006 9:15PM]

These guy should definitely be the test pilot!!

(http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5417019303200331106)

[Jared @ Aug 25th 2008 1:00AM]

Crazy but fun

[Chris McDowell @ Aug 1st 2006 9:45PM]

Rocket packs are nothng new and this one looks like it was made in a garage. and has way too much crap on it. http://www.canosoarus.com/07RocketBelt/Rocket02.htm

[SIGN ME UP! @ Aug 2nd 2006 7:27AM]

So it uses the power of multiple inline hairdryers set to Defuse?

[Matt @ Aug 2nd 2006 10:05AM]

As an individual with a Degree in Aerospace Engineering, all I could do was shake my head as I looked over his site.

This guy is going to kill someone. Hopefully its only limited to maiming himself.

The saving grace is that the FAA will NEVER give him a certification (Experimental or not) for this contraption. Considering that it has a flight time that is barely longer than the amount of time that should be used to conduct a throughal pre-flight checklist, the fact that he has virtually NO way to develop a uniform standard flight control system that will be pilot independent, the fact that R/C turbines, while small and cheap are nowhere NEAR as reliable and consitent as full size certified turbine engines.

I can only hope that no-one is dumb enough to send him a check. Maybe he should hit-up Moller (Flying Car) for money and advice.

[Richard Davis @ Aug 3rd 2006 6:19AM]

The jet pack falls under the ultra light aircraft category. This means he doesn’t need FAA certification. I applaud his efforts in designing aircraft that has a purpose in military and civilian rescue applications. I truly do knot know why a so called expert is condemning this design when it is safer, and has an exceptional long flight time for what it is. Keep up the amazing work Skywalker.

[stupid girl @ Aug 8th 2006 11:55AM]

hi, i want that jet pack. i am stupid enough to use it.

[jacque meihoffe @ Aug 10th 2006 8:24AM]

Safety isn't an issue, just attach a ballistic 'chute. Otherwise it's a pretty good idea done insipidly: there's no directional stabilty built into the design. He'd be better off using thrust vectoring and larger engines for a safer reserve power band.

[butters @ Aug 13th 2006 8:30PM]

this was on ebay not to long ago,it said for lookks only,not operational