DARPA’s new jetpack is a flightless sci-fi bummer
SUMMARY
When you hear the word “jetpack,” you picture someone zooming through the sky like the Rocketeer. But DARPA and Arizona State University’s version of the jetpack is a complete let down.
“We’re not able to fly with our jetpack,” sa…
When you hear the word "jetpack," you picture someone zooming through the sky like the Rocketeer. But DARPA and Arizona State University's version of the jetpack is a complete let down.
"We're not able to fly with our jetpack," said graduate engineer Jason Kerestes, in a video from Arizona State University. "We have instantaneous thrust and we can pretty much trigger it to allow for faster movement and agile motions."
The pack is designed to enable troops to run a mile in four minutes, but it doesn't look like they're quite there yet. At 3:07 of the video, the engineers say to a runner that his time improvement with the jetpack was only three seconds.
Watch the jetpack in action: