So a new jetpack designed by New Zealanders has started doing some test runs. It tackles a central problem that every jetpack builder has faced: what if you’re way up in the air and the engine somehow fails? The grim reality is: you plummet to your death. BUT MAYBE NOT ANYMORE! Because the Martin Jetpack has a built-in parachute. I’m not clear if the parachute is expected to hold both the enormous and cumbersome apparatus AS WELL AS the idiot who gets into one of these things. If it’s just the pilot, it would seem you introduce a whole new level of danger with the whole “jetpacks falling from the sky” angle. Should be available commercially in 18 months (suuuuure it will) and cost $100,000. It’s like a jetski of the air.
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