Ever since Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and the Jetsons blasted off in our newspapers and TV screens, jetpacks have been in our culture.

Strapping on a jetpack, pressing flight goggles over my eyes and blasting away into a clear sky seems like a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Many of my childhood daydreams revolved around just this.

It’s unlikely you’ll spot a jetpack outside your window, but they do exist. While today’s models are expensive and mostly used by the military or for exhibitions, you can actually buy one – if you have a few hundred thousand lying around.

Sadly, most of us have to settle for watching videos of test flights and demonstrations of jetpacks, like the models from JetPack Aviation or Gravity Industries. I’ve watched these videos over and over, thinking: “Now, that looks like fun!”

Jetpacks aren't just a product of sci-fi movies Jetpacks today can fly longer than those few seconds they managed in the 1960s, but not by much.

Of course, jetpacks are hardly new. We have been obsessed with them for decades. Ever since Flash........

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