It seems that personal hovering equipment is becoming very popular at this decade in time. Whether it's a hovering bike, hovering skateboard, or something else that can move without touching the ground, numerous gadgets hit the news every day as the technology is improved.
Among one of the latest things to hit headlines is something call the Martin Jetpack, which is a personal jetpack that a single user can control and use to fly for nearly half an hour before it needs more gas. It's rated to be able to climb up to 3000 feet in the air and fly at speeds as fast as 46 miles per hour.
Unlike a lot of other hovercraft, a 200 horsepower V4 petrol engine powers the Martin Jetpack. Many other hovercraft designs are using large batteries to power light propeller blades, so this is an interesting choice of power for the jetpack, which is sure to pack a bit more punch than current prototypes.
On the other hand, the petrol engine is significantly noisier than traditional battery-powered hover devices, as you can see from the video below:
The Martin Jetpack will be available to the public soon, in fact, possibly sooner than you think. The creators are saying that it should be available to the public to purchase in the later half of next year (2016).
That's not to say it'll be cheap, however. The Martin Jetpack Web site states that the jetpack will cost approximately $150,000-$200,000 depending on the chosen configuration, plus the addition of customization mods that the user wants, which obviously cost some extra money to add on.
Although it's possible to be had by individuals that have this kind of money to blow on a gadget like this, the company hopes that it will come in handy for first responders (hence the name) in fire response, search & rescue, disaster recovery, border security, and various other missions.
"I think the first responders will see that as a massive improvement to their capability," Peter Coker, CEO of Martin said. "So, for example, in the fire services going around to look at the situational awareness of what's going on, perhaps through water security or even search and rescue on beach patrol, something along those lines. Naturally for the ambulance service getting to a point of importance of rescuing people in the shortest possible time. So there's a lot of uses within that first responder environment."
Would you want to have one of these?
Source: Forbes, Martin Jetpacks
