Do you want to be a Martin Jetpack test pilot? Well, now is your big opportunity, because Glenn Martin is auctioning off the chance to test-fly his latest Martin Jetpack.
(Martin Jetpack test flight)
According to Martin, the "jetpack experience" has been engineered in such a way that most consumers can take one for a spin and not have an unfortunate experience.
Ah, how long we've been waiting for a usable jetpack. Remember those sf ideas of yesteryear, like the flying harness from E.E. 'Doc Smith's 1928 novel Skylark of Space, the anti-gravity belt from Philip Nowlan's Armageddon: 2419 A.D. and the cool jump harness from Robert Heinlein's 1961 classic Stranger in a Strange Land?
(Cover of Amazing Stories August 1928)
The dream lives on in the modern science fiction movie, like these jetpacks from Stephen Spielberg's Minority Report.
(Police jetpacks from Minority Report)
From Wired with thanks to Moira for the story and reference graphics. See more pictures of the Martin Jetpack.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/1/2009)
'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.' - Dr. David H. Keller, 1935.
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'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars'
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