Crazy man in peroxide jetpack makes Guinness World Record attempt

Scotland's Knockhill Racing Circuit is a little too small for setting land-based speed records, but there's apparently plenty of room above it for some airborne attempts. It was the site of a new Guinness World Record attempt for the fastest man in a jetpack, with pilot Eric Scott scoring a maximum speed of 68mph, verified by a police radar gun. His propulsion is basically the same hydrogen peroxide-based tech that enabled Bond to make a daring escape in Thunderball in the '60s, which sadly still means 30 - 40 seconds maximum flying time -- faster, but a little less impressive than the 30+ miles offered by the competition. It's now up to the officials at Guinness to decide whether the record is worthy of inclusion, but you can watch the video below and decide for yourself.

[Via OhGizmo!]

[Adam K @ May 15th 2009 8:47AM]

Not as cool as I would have hoped. But I still want.

[OneLove @ May 15th 2009 11:21AM]

"stronger for longer"

[Argot @ May 15th 2009 1:45PM]

I for one welcome our new Darwin Award overlords.

[slamEVIL @ May 15th 2009 1:57PM]

yeah but when they shoot him far from the side you can really get a feel for how fast he is going. man, that's gotta feel awesome! wish i could do it.

[Mike @ May 15th 2009 3:49PM]

There was only that one shot that really showed how fast he was going. I would be a bit nervous going 68mph with barely any protective gear.

The best part was the ridiculously smooth landing. More like movie material, less like something from a trial video.

[M @ May 18th 2009 2:15AM]

You kidding me? that was sweet esp the side view where you can really see the speed he's traveling at. And the landing was perfect. very cool.

[Danthok @ May 15th 2009 9:06AM]

Definitely worthy of inclusion.

Especially if you consider he only has 30-40 seconds to get airborne, get up to speed, and land safely.

That takes some balls imho.

[Boards of Canada @ May 15th 2009 9:18AM]

The landing was cool. Very smooth. I wish it was a hobbit flying this thing though...

[Geir E @ May 15th 2009 9:20AM]

50 years of innovation, no progress is made.

I think people have enough trouble trying to stay alive on the road for this to happend, not to mention the extreme waste of energy just to stay above ground and the total lack of cargo space.

[jaber @ May 15th 2009 9:36AM]

Wow.
The real-life version of Red Alert 2's Rocketeer.
Hope he doesn't 'sploded into flames when someone shoots him.

[cromas @ May 15th 2009 9:24AM]

"[...] verified by a police radar gun."

Yeah, because we know how famous those are for being accurate.

[Phenoum @ May 15th 2009 10:22AM]

spiteful much?

and yes - they're certainly more accurate than the speedometer in your car.

You have much to learn young padawan

[Jmoney according to george @ May 15th 2009 3:09PM]

Doppler Shift.

Physics ftw.

[The Observer @ May 15th 2009 9:34AM]

This can fly on the moon!.. unlike "the competition"

[ShadowMaker @ May 15th 2009 9:39AM]

Peroxide huh? I guess if you crash, you'll do so sporting a nice blonde look.

[BeyondtheTech @ May 15th 2009 9:40AM]

And I bet his skin is free of acne, too.

[BeyondtheTech @ May 15th 2009 9:41AM]

I heard he spent over 11 hours squeezing out all the liquid of those OXY 10 pads just to get about 30 seconds of flight. Too much effort for me.

[Wwhat @ May 15th 2009 9:42AM]

In relation to the removed bits, I wasn't saying he was spamming ads, but he was in my personal view (without hard evidence) making non-commenting complimentary posts merely to put his personal blog link up (I assume it was his blog from the name and looking atthe description line in google)
Just to be clear about it.
The fake ads I put up were merely illustrative of the 'trick' of making nice posts just so you can conclude with a link you want people to visit, be they benign and personal, or in my spoof; ads (though mine were fake)

[innocenceisdeath @ May 15th 2009 10:07AM]

Who picked the music ¬_¬

[Matt Smith @ May 15th 2009 10:33AM]

The landing was smoother than I thought it'd be... pretty cool... keep up the good work.

[erik lol @ May 15th 2009 4:26PM]

he should try to set an altitude record :O

[ProfessorKaos @ May 15th 2009 12:46PM]

Can anyone tell me what the song was by any chance?

[Peter @ May 15th 2009 1:10PM]

First of all. Can all you video makers out there please stop puting music tracks over your vids. When you show us clips of game footage or some badass stuff like jetpacks we want to 'hear' whats going on too. Not everyone one is visually oriented. Many people find sound to be a very important dimention so when you discount it and just slap some noise over it you detract alot from the experience.

Secondly. (and this goes for the endadget site too) without a reference point there is no sense of either movement or size. In the case of this vid half of it was footage of hime with nothing but grey clouds as a backdrop which gives the impression that he is just hanging there. As it was a speed run it might have been nice to get a sense of his speed.

As for this and other sites. I get quite frustrated many times when i'm looking at gadgets such as phones etc and there is just a white background. I have no clue of the size of things sometimes.

[yooeee @ May 15th 2009 1:28PM]

2nd that. this video was stupid. and hte music made it worse. i deem this lame.

[Joshua @ May 15th 2009 1:30PM]

I second Peter's points. I realize the producer/editor who actually cut the video for the web probably doesn't care at all about the content and figures he has to make it more interesting by including a dance track, that blows out all the event sound ... it just ticks me off.

Also if you're showing a sport don't $@#! with the speed. Show it in real time and leave it at that. What the #$@%_____#$$%! is the point of watching a SPEED record attempt in slow motion??? All this is an indication that the producers think the content is total crap and that it's they're job to make it interesting.

Okay I'm done venting...

[Kaveman @ May 15th 2009 10:09PM]

It's Scotland, all you're going to see is grey clouds :)

[Jill @ May 15th 2009 1:47PM]

Well I thought it was great just to see the reality of how daring some people are..hope he gets into the record books.What a great controlled landing I didn`t expect that.

[Bad Beaver @ May 15th 2009 2:37PM]

It would have been more interesting without the stupid music, one could actually have heard the noise...

[keithwwalker @ May 15th 2009 8:07PM]

I will be impressed when he manages to poop on the windshield of a car, at speed. Then and only then, will he truly be 'birdlike'....

[Wwhat @ May 16th 2009 7:22AM]

You should copyright that idea before japanese websites pop up on the subject.

[GodCentMe @ May 16th 2009 2:29PM]

Come on, James Bond broke this record years ago!

[Nikhil @ May 16th 2009 6:29PM]

how much do these things cost??? :D

[baracuda68 @ May 17th 2009 9:40AM]

wouldn't you think that he could even go faster,if he laid horizontal? I guess he would burn his butt off, though...

[wisu @ May 17th 2009 10:47PM]

them hanging trousers remind me of Michael Jackson :P

[matt @ May 18th 2009 8:33AM]

hiya heres the raw footage at real time with a little bit of sound from the jet pack hope you like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXYmo5qkOlc

[Matt Smith @ May 19th 2009 7:50AM]

I'm amazed at how similar this rocket pack looks to this one that was demonstrated to the president in 1961...

http://www.life.com/image/53381228/in-gallery/25371/30-dumb-inventions

[Matt Smith @ May 19th 2009 7:52AM]

I'm amazed at how similar this rocket pack looks to this one that was demonstrated to the president in 1961...

http://www.life.com/image/53381228/in-gallery/25371/30-dumb-inventions

[matt @ May 19th 2009 9:08AM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXYmo5qkOlc&feature=channel_page

thats a link to the real time footage with a little bit of audio from the jet pack hope you like