Jetpack Aviation

Jetpack Aviation is a California-based company that produces jetpacks and other personal aircraft.

Jetpacks

The company was founded by Australian inventor David Mayman, who had previously worked in software but had a longstanding interest in developing a jetpack. In the mid-2000s, he began working with Nelson Tyler, an engineer and inventor in Hollywood who had previously worked on the Bell Rocket Belt in the 1980s. The pair began work on a backpack-sized jet that would takeoff and land vertically that would meet popular expectations of the science fiction concept.^[1]

Their first device was the JB-9, a carbon-fiber corset that straps to the wearer's back that burns kerosene to propel them for about 10 minutes, based on their weight and flight conditions. In November 2015, Mayman publicly unveiled the device by flying around the Statue of Liberty, including a pause and pirouette.^[1]

The company made its first sales to the military of a Southeast Asian country. The two JB-12s sold for $400,000 apiece.^[2] The company said the unnamed client was in the interest of dispatching medics for urgent emergency triage faster than a car or helicopter.^[3]

References

1. Blain, Loz (November 9, 2015). "JB-9 jetpack makes spectacular debut flying around Statue of Liberty". New Atlas. from the original on May 27, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
2. Blain (September 8, 2021). "JetPack Aviation makes first jetpack sales to unnamed military". New Atlas. from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
3. Hood, Lonnie Lee (May 6, 2022). "Inventor Says He's Built a Real Life Flying Motorcycle". Futurism. from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2023.

Further reading

• Atherton, Kelsey D. (November 7, 2015). "Watch This Jetpack Do Strange Things Near Ellis Island". Popular Science. from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
• Eggers, Dave (January 22, 2022). "'It's a glorified backpack of tubes and turbines': Dave Eggers on jetpacks and the enigma of solo flight". The Guardian. from the original on August 17, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
• Lee, Joel (March 23, 2016). "The World's First True Jetpack: What You Need to Know About It". Make Use Of. from the original on June 20, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
• Nicas, Jack (June 2016). "We Were Promised Jetpacks". The Future of Everything: A Look Ahead from the Wall Street Journal. pp. 66–71.
• Schroeder, Stan (November 9, 2015). "Jetpack pilot flies near Statue of Liberty". Mashable. Retrieved August 18, 2023.