In keeping with our occasional “where’s my flying car?” motif, I thought I’d pass along this little goody. The Denver Post reports that daredevil Eric Scott successfully avoided plummeting to his death in Royal Gorge with a 135-pound rocket-powered backpack strapped to him.
The pack, designed by aerospace engineer Eric Strauss, carried Scott across the 1,500 foot wide, 1,053 foot deep canyon. According to the Post, he had 33 seconds of fuel, and made it across in 25. Plenty of time to spare!
Troy Widgery, founder of Jetpack International, the company that created the pack, is pursuing a childhood dream. Next up, he says, is a pack with three turbines, capable of staying aloft for nine minutes and crossing the Grand Canyon.
Update: CBS News has the story, too. Both the Denver Post and CBS have video of the flight, and CBS has an interview with Scott. CBS is saying the flight took either 21 or 23 seconds, and he had a total of 30 seconds of hydrogen peroxide fuel. Either way, he made it with about 7 seconds to spare. Heh.
originally posted on Eat Our Brains, Nov 28, 2008
