Actual Factual Jet Pack: VIDEO

At last the future is here. After decades wasted on such frivolous concerns as space travel and attempting to cure cancer, man has realized what is truly important and bent his skills to achieving the ultimate truth: a goddamn jetpack. (The ultimate truth is "Jetpacks are totally sweet" - video inside)

Jet Pack International (Jet PI) sent test pilot Eric Scott flying a across a 300 meter canyon at 120 kilometers per hour at the start of this week. Jet Pack International also have the coolest name of any company, ever, in the history of anything. The H202-Z jetpack used depends on 30 liters of hydrogen peroxide fuel. You might know H2O2 better as a bleach or disinfectant, which may seem surprising considering how similar that looks to our good friends H2O and O2. What you're missing is the very strong oxidizing tendency as the peroxide eagerly separates itself into those two components.

So eagerly, in fact, that you can use the stuff as rocket fuel without anything else in the mix. Forcing the fuel into a small reaction chamber with a little catalyst to start the breakdown, a jet of super-scalding steam is blasted out of the chamber and (thanks to a little thing called "Newton's 3rd") blasts the wearer into the air. The steam would also blast the top layers of flesh from anything they hit so be sure to stand well back.

Such simple propellant packs aren't the newest thing in the world, but what may interest you is how they'll soon be available for private use. The fine (and presumably crime-fighting) folks at Jet PI are currently working on the T-73, which could be yours for the bargain price of two hundred thousand dollars. You may have to check if you're actually allowed to use it where you live - but on the other hand, if you aren't how are they going to catch you?

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By Luke McKinney

Image credit: Jet pack international

Comments

[Saudi]

Hate to say this, but the scudding terrorists would say to one another;

"are you thinking what I am thinking? "

[Saudi]

Hate to say this, but the suicidal terrorists would say to one another,

"are you thinking what I am thinking"?

[Nevermind]

Geez, if i had that kind of money I would rather buy myself a Helicopter. It just looks safer...

[davidst]

Guess what? That jetpack was probably out of juice by the time it landed. It's a neat stunt, but this is pretty durn impractical.

[Alyssabeth O'Finnerty]

No, old boy, not a jet pack. A rocket pack. Big difference, old chum. Go back to remedial physics.

[John]

I love this jetpack / rocketpack. This takes the elephants toothpaste experiment to a whole new level. To those unfamilair with elephants toothpaste, its the experiment where you mix 30% hydrogen peroxide, a little dawn soap, a few drops of food coloring in with a catalyst like sodium iodide. The catalyst releases the oxygen in the peroxide immediatley. That produces steam and foam in elephants toothpaste. In the jetpack is produces thrust. Im sure the jetpack uses something more along the lines of 90% hydrogen peroxide like the space shuttle. For refernce what you buy at store is 3% hydrogen peroxide. You can see the elephants toothpaste experiment at:

http://weirdsciencekids.com/elephantstoothpastekids.html

[peliportti.com]

A catalyst in a reaction is an extra ingredient that makes the reaction go faster or more efficiently