This isn't the future we were promised. Where are the jetpacks? |
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 bucks 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
Of course, jetpacks are hardly new. Americans have been obsessed with them for decades. Ever since Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and the Jetsons blasted off in our newspapers and TV screens, jetpacks have been in our culture.
The first time someone was crazy enough to strap one on and fly it was 1961, when........