In One Year, You Can Buy Your Own Jetpack

by Monica Joshi

I remember that when I was younger, being stuck in traffic on long drives was a pain. It was such a pain that my mind would wander, dreaming of a time when I could zoom straight out of the car window and over all the cars to my home or the hotel. Now, New Zealand's Martin Jetpack has opened for public trading, making my and others' childhood dreams come true.

You’ll finally be able to soar to school, wing your way to work and descend upon your mortal enemies without them seeing you coming.

The Martin Jetpack was first flown in public in 2008. It isn’t technically the type of jetpack with which we’re all very familiar from TV and movies, as it belongs to a family of vehicles known as the “ducted fan”. The jetpack will include elements of some modern and old experimental hover bikes, as well as some drones.

It's powered by a V4 200 horsepower engine, which drives two ducted fans to achieve speeds of about 74 kilometers per hour (about 46 mph). Flight could be sustained for up to 20 minutes at a height of 1,000 meters (328 feet).

As it is smaller than a helicopter, but bigger than a drone, the jetpack's creators say that it can be used for rescuing surfers or even inspecting pipelines. So, while it's not exactly a “jetpack”, it's still an actual flying machine that is worn on a person's back and can hurtle them in space.

As long as money is not an issue, for between $150,000 to $200,000, you can own one in the second half of 2016! It's set to be marketed at the recreational folk as well as rich thrill-seekers – really, as only they will be able to afford this new gadget, given that it costs half of the house most of us currently own.

A few of the concerns about this new gadget are the way in which its use will be monitored by the government, i.e. will anyone be able to use the jetpack, or will there be certain age restrictions and licensing to allow jetpack use? I suppose, as you get older, safety becomes more of an issue and no longer does it seem “super cool” to fly around on a jetpack without having proper jetpack traffic guidelines.

While these new and improved technologies are certainly cool, they do require regulation. Chris Fussell explains why it's concerning when technology pushes conflict beyond regulators' abilities to rein them in.