At OSH, did you see the "jet pack" fly?

[ChiefPilot]

Originally Posted by n468ac

Insurance isn't a requirement to fly at OSH or anywhere within the US ... i just think that they have a hover craft that can't really fly much higher ... even their web site dones't show any real flying ... just hover craft with people chasing it around.

I too was VERY disappointed in the EAA ... they should have seen the jet pack in action before the "flight" at aero shell. Or at least had a fly by with one prototype and another to look at.

Do you really think that EAA would let them fly w/o liability insurance? Airshow liability insurance is a big deal; it's expensive, and many/most states have laws that you needs to have such in order to put on any kind of exhibition.

[robertahegy]

I think the name Jet Pack was misleading, I did go to the booth and watched the videos, and I did ask questions. I would have thought the videos might prove performance to be better than demonstrated at EAA, but they did not. If this this is capable of 500 ft AGL flights, where is their proof. I never saw any flight, video or otherwise that went above 3 ft. If that is all they have in 30 years of developement, I think they need to do better. And why single me out. I'm entitled to my opinion, too!!

Roberta

[DeltaRomeo]

I'm not ashamed to say I boo'd. "Truth in advertising" implied something more than an 18 inch hover from something called Jet Pack Man. Rob and I came up with 'jet poop man' a couple minutes after its 'flight'....I'd rather seen the pots and pans guy in the fly mart I think .

[Bryan Wood]

I was about 50' back in the crowd and only saw the top of his helmet. I'd rank it up there with a time share presentation or a movie with sub titles. If it wasn't for the bottle of water that the EAA sold to me as a member in good standing for $2.75 the time would have been wasted. To top it off there was a grouchy old fellow on one of those old lady electric scooter things openly coughing on people to keep a clear area around him so that he could see without standing up. All wasn't lost though, they had Glacier Girl parked there and we looked at that.

[CE196]

Originally Posted by DeltaRomeo

I'm not ashamed to say I boo'd. "Truth in advertising" implied something more than an 18 inch hover from something called Jet Pack Man. Rob and I came up with 'jet poop man' a couple minutes after its 'flight'....I'd rather seen the pots and pans guy in the fly mart I think .

Aw come on, at least he beat the gravatational forces of the earths mass and DID become airborne. I wonder what the na sayers said about those nutty Wright brothers?

They will get better, and so will the Jet Poop, I mean Pack!

[N282S]

I stood for about 45 minutes. I don't know why. All I saw was a jet rotax inducted fan pac mans helmet raise up about three feet move back a little,then move forward, then dissappear back down.

But what was entertaining was the way it was staged. First, there were no barricades. Not even a yellow ribbon. As the crowd gathered and moved in, the EAA guy yelled at everyone to move back. Okay, a bizillion people deep and NOW we're gonna move back? Then EAA guy says, "If you don't move back this won't happen." Lot's of boos. Masses love threats. Then CNN told people not to touch their truck because it was shaking the camera. Right. Children, stay out of the cookie jar. Then CNN had the speakers moved out of their way. Then the announcer says you may want to cover your ears and hold your hat. Uh, what? Then after Jet rotax inducted fan pack man kind of did his thing, the guy next to me yells at CNN if "They got it". Funny.

I should have watched the bull riding.

But, as Carl Sagan once said:
They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown

[n468ac]

Originally Posted by ChiefPilot

Do you really think that EAA would let them fly w/o liability insurance? Airshow liability insurance is a big deal; it's expensive, and many/most states have laws that you needs to have such in order to put on any kind of exhibition.

Really ... their web site claims its an ultralight ... should have been down at the ultralight area and flew every day ... you can't tell me all those vendors have airshow lability in the ultralight field ... i know the EAA isn't checking our airshow liability insurance when we flew in with the RV. Did all those in the mass arrivals have to get insurance?

I said it over and over up there ... you can't call it a jet pack in from EAA members, they know the difference. They would have done better "flying it" in front of the Today show.



I guess i'm just showing my disappoint in the hype.

[rvator51]

As I recall, it wasnt a man flying it. It was a 15 yr old boy who looked pretty slender and light weight. Wonder if it would have lifted off the ground with my 200 pounds strapped into it? Don't know how much more power the two stroke could have put out as it sound pretty revved up.

The Rocket racer on the other hand, taking off and climbing fast with a long flame coming out of it, lived up to the hype.

[n5lp]

Just imagine if this contraption actually flew on those two stroke engines. This isn't a helicopter that can autorotate or an airplane that can glide. If that thing got to 100 feet and an engine coughed that would seem to be all-she-wrote. Maybe they work in theory but by the number of two stroke engine failures I have seen, I wouldn't want anyone staking their life on them.

[mbell]

Some guys at my home airport (Lodi) went through a few million of the taxpayers' dollars to create a remarkably similar device (now for sale as a movie prop). I was impressed that the New Zealand version at least was a lot smaller and quieter. But it appears to suffer from the same fundamental flaw as the one DARPA abandoned: once you are above an altitude from which you refuse to fall, you are doomed if the engine(s) quit. Might be an interesting ground effect toy, but it's $100,000.

As a side note, that whole episode was the most disorganized EAA event I have ever witnessed. For a moment there when they were trying to move everybody back I thought the crowd was going to become a European soccer scene.