

Personal jetpack in 2012 for $100,000 - kia
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/09/the-martin-jetpack-will-be-available-in-2012-for-100000/

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citricsquid
Sorry guys, if I had $100k to drop on a fun gadget I'd get the water jet pack
instead. 100% the fun, 0% the death.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im1iNq02Kz0> <http://jetlev.com/>

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acangiano
That product suffers from what I call "the Segway syndrome". Namely, you look
extremely dorky on it.

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sneak
What do you care what other people think?

Segways, as well as water jetpacks, are lots of fun. Care less.

Pairing of money and mouth: Me falling off a Segway like a 'tard. (
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Zk5eFAHJU> )

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acangiano
I personally don't care, but the public evidently does when it comes to
product adoption.

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DarkShikari
The problem with the Segway is more likely the fact that it's extremely
expensive compared to similarly-purposed motor scooters.

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dreamux
Or just walking.

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nikcub
I thought that the regulation in the USA meant that anything the ultralight
category can not be flown over populated areas[1].

regardless, the USA may be very liberal in terms of regulations for ultralight
aircraft, but other nations are definitely not. In most other places there are
certification and licensing requirements for anything above an unpowered
hanglider. In Australia and Europe you need a pilots license for an ultralight
craft.

If this does make it to production, and does manage to take advantage of
ultralight regulations, I can see the laws being changed to require
certification and licensing (or outright bans) in the same way many cities,
states etc. responded to the Segway and low-powered bicycles.

There is just no way that they are going to allow people in suburban areas to
take off in one of these without a license and without certification - and
very likely not at all

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultralight_aviation#United_Stat...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultralight_aviation#United_States)

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arethuza
I know someone who goes paramotoring in the UK - I'm pretty sure he doesn't
have any kind of license:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_paragliding#License_and...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_paragliding#License_and_training)

[Paramotoring has the distinct advantage of being fail safe with regards to
motor failures.]

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jshort
It would be fun to use but I wonder about the practical uses, if I flew to
work with it am I going to be able to bring anything with me, or am I going to
look like I just walked through a tornado, and finally where do I put it when
I do get to work?

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recampbell
I think this is mostly going to be seen at high-end amusement parks for the
moment. I'd be willing to pay more than $50 for a few minutes with this thing.
But perhaps insurance would be the real cost of doing business in that case?

Other applications might include law enforcement, or perhaps search and
rescue? Helicopters can't get everywhere...

If you did fly it work, I'd imagine you'd look like you rode a motorcycle to
work. So, pack a a change of clothes and wear a helmet.

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jrockway
Ah, I see... so they're about 5 months away from canceling the project.
(<http://xkcd.com/678/>)

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civilian
The image [http://cdn2.ubergizmo.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/09/jetpack...](http://cdn2.ubergizmo.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/09/jetpack-521x640.jpg) is continued proof that the first
thing you notice about someone is their shoes. Their marketing people know
this. You should buy new shoes too.

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dchest
Great example of how a lot of books/advice about marketing work, in one
sentence, thank you! The author observes his/her behavior ( _first thing I
noticed is shoes_ ), thinks all people do the same ( _most people notice
shoes_ ), cites one or two examples as a _proof_ , and says that marketing
people know this. Works best with the surprise factor ( _shoes is such a tiny
detail compared to jetback_ ).

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civilian
Haha, well said, but I had an "awwww" reaction. One of my corporate mentors
once scolded me (in a helping way) for having bad shoes & a bad haircut, and
told me to pay more for both.

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clavalle
$100,000. Rent out for $500/ 1/2hour after 5 lessons at $100 - $200 a piece
(not in the air -- or closely tethered at 2-3 ft). Gimp the flight controls a
bit by the fly-by-wire controller for an extra measure of safety.

If you can book 10 hours a month, the machine is paid for in 10 months. Since
you'd likely get a lot of press right off with very little effort, you could
probably book a lot more time than that.

OF course your clients would have to sign away all liability and no one would
insure it so you'd have to figure out how much this thing is to repair but I
could see someone making a tidy living off of these things.

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lutorm
Sounds awesome, but I wonder about reliability and the consequences of engine
failure. You can land airplanes and helicopters without power, but if that
two-stroker kicks it in air I fail to see how there'll be anything but a big
splat. And two-strokes aren't exactly known for being the most reliable
either...

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modernerd
It has a parachute should the engine fail. See
<http://martinjetpack.com/safety-features.aspx>

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lutorm
Ok, that makes sense. You'd figure for $100k they'd throw that in! ;-)

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thomson
"The good news is that due to it being in the ultralight category, should you
decide to get your hands on the jetpack, you will not be required to have a
license of any sort."

Why is this good news? Half an hour in the air with a max speed of 63mph is
something we don't want to regulate?

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wyclif
_They Promised Us Jetpacks_

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oscardelben
I'm hoping these things will become mainstream in the future. Of course
there'll be regulations and I'm not sure they would be safe if a lot of people
would use them, but they're still nice!

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BasDirks
Some more background: [http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/5071233/Giant-leap-
for-Kiw...](http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/5071233/Giant-leap-for-Kiwi-
jetpack)

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Fizzer
Safety issues aside, how practical is this really for a daily commute? Even if
you halve the 60mph for 30 minutes estimate, that still works for a lot of
executive's commutes.

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missy
I think a sportscar will impress the ladies more..... or angel invest into YC
Start Ups. Both allow you to be up in the clouds as well. (positive sense)

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trocker
If I had $100k, I'd help bootstrapping 5 startups.

I'll wait for 2-5 years for them to grow,and in the mean time the jetpack will
become safer!

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0x12
Is your batting average sufficiently high that 5 start-ups would be enough to
get one 'winner' at the percentage you'd invest to make back your 100K?

Especially if you've never done this before I'd expect that you might need a
bit more runway than just 100K. YC pulled it off to have reddit and loopt in
their first batch but it did take the combined efforts of Robert Morris, Paul
Graham, Trevor Blackwell and Jessica Livingston to decide on those five.

It may have helped that for none of them it was the only money they had.

I applaud you for being daring but typically the failure rate of start-ups is
such that you'd need pretty deep pockets as an inexperienced and relatively
unknown investor to make a go of it.

On top of that you'll be in competition with other incubators with more
visibility which likely will attract the 'hot' ones first.

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Egregore
What will be the regulation and law requirements for this jetpack? Will I have
to have a flying license?

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lutorm
As it said, it's an ultralight which means that (at least in the US) you
apparently don't need a license. You probably still need to conform to some
FAA flight rules, so I doubt they would like you to meander into SFO Class B
airspace...

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DanielBMarkham
This looks appealing, especially if you have a short commute you take
regularly, and assuming the unit is rugged enough to be used on a regular
basis.

The interesting question to me is what kind of flight profile I'd use. 1,000
feet and fast? Or low and slow? If you knew where the power lines and towers
were, it'd almost make sense to do something like fly at 100-200' or so at max
speed. Assuming you had ten seconds or more of notice before the thing shut
down, you could probably plop yourself quickly into some kind of landing. Much
easier that screwing around with the parachute. If I were going to be doing
engine diagnostics and parachute drills, I'd want to be up in the 3000-5000'
range, and personally I'd get a little woozy at that altitude zooming along
without nav lights, a transponder, or even a big profile. But perhaps that's
the recommended operation?

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crizCraig
Sweet test video:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBndcBjQFM&feature=relmf...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBndcBjQFM&feature=relmfu)

