James Bond once used one to escape from Spectre assassins, before tucking it neatly into the skimpy trunk of his Aston Martin DB5 (talk about convenience). And, for all those who saw ‘Thunderball’ in theaters, or watched it broadcast on ABC through a 1970’s Sony Trinitron, this article is for you.
Jetpack Aviation founder David Mayman revealed his newest prototype, the JB-10, a little over a week ago in California. The wearable jet-powered device is not intentionally named after James Bond, as far as we know, but it will allow users to take off and, hopefully, land with considerable ease. And, since it is not technically an aircraft, no special licensing is needed for operation.
Now, for the grown-up Bond fans who’ve developed a bit of a pragmatic perspective about Albert R. Broccoli’s adolescent fantasy world, having perhaps even graduated to a ‘Looking Glass War’ sense of ideological nihilism and circumspection, concerns become immediately evident: happy-go-lucky multi-millionaires are imagined skimming the instruction manual, impetuously taking flight, and careening out of control a la Woody Allen in ‘Sleeper’ while family members frantically dial the Air Force Helpline.
Mayman’s design, evidently, has been painstakingly developed for absolute ease of operation, and safety. A product of around forty years of design research and development, the JB-10 employs a complex series of gyroscopic sensory readings and acceleration information to continually offer feedback to the system’s electronics; the result is continual automated airborne compensation, which keeps the flier upright, and in control. Two specially-designed turbine engines provide necessary thrust for vertical lift and cruising.
Mayman cites cellphone tech as a primary reason why an acual jetpack will be available—at a price—for the average man- or woman-on-the-street. The JB-10 can spend ten minutes in the air, achieve a speed of 70MPH, and fly to 10,000 feet—although it goes without saying that pilots should remain very aware of their maximum flight time before flying too high.
If you plan to ask Santa for one of these cool little units, though, you’ll have to wait until Christmas 2019, when the JB-10 will be available to consumers.
