It’s 2020, weren’t we all supposed to have jetpacks and flying cars by now? We just got one step closer.
One of the great disappointments about the new Millenium is that technology hasn’t kept pace with imagination. Old shows and movies imagined great things in personalized transportation that never quite arrived.
We don’t all have spaceships, food replicators and personal robots to help us with our daily tasks. We don’t even have flying cars — yet. (But Uber is working on it.)
But we are getting closer to having personal jetpacks that can take us soaring through the air at ridiculous speeds.
Sure, we’ve all seen those slow-moving hover-packs that let a guy fly around a ship and go back to where he started. But that’s all pretty limited in scope.
Where’s the fun in that?
But as of last week, personal flight tech has taken an exciting step forward.
First, he fires up the engines and gives us a controlled hover…
and then? Well — see for yourself.
On Friday, February 14th, 2020: #Jetman Vince Reffet took off, headed south towards Jumeirah Beach Residence, building speed and height. In 8 seconds he had reached 100 meters height, in 12 seconds 200m, 19 seconds 500m, and reached 1000m in 30 seconds at an average speed of 130 knots. At the end of a 3-minute flight punctuated by a roll and a loop at 1800m altitude, Jetman Vince Reffet opened his parachute at 1500m before landing back at Skydive Dubai.
It is the first time that a #JetmanDubai pilot could combine hovering safely at a limited altitude and flying aerobatics at high altitude in the same flight.
Controlled from the ground by the human body, the equipment enables Jetman Dubai to reach speeds of 400kmh, as well as hovering, changing direction and performing loops.
Held under the theme ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, Expo 2020 will be the first World Expo ever hosted in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, region since the first edition in London in 1851. UAE prepares to welcome 192 nations and millions of global visitors for Expo 2020 Dubai from 20 October 2020 to 10 April 2021.
Would you strap yourself into one of those bad boys? Or would scare the hell out of you?
Would you ever fly one of these?
