What future alternatives might there be to the jetpack vision for solo bodied human flight ?

Question

Many of us have wanted to fly, like superman. It will never be possible to fly quite as fast - but I wouldn't be suprised if sometime within human existence, in the next few thousand years - given the industrial development we have surpassed over the last 200 years; eventually, there must be an environmentally sustainable way - for humans to fly with great agility.

We may wear a form of suit to protect our skin from atmospheric pressure, and a helmet with compressed oxygen flowing, to allow us to breath. The jet may be using hydrogen as a fuel or something, but obviously to create such a lift it will probably be impossible without burning our asses off.

What do you think? Can it be possible? Maybe the device can have thousands of minicomputers on board like the typhoon - allowing it to remain aero dynamic.

I'm just throwing this one out there.

Answer 1

Telekinetic levitation!!!

Answer 2

Anything is possible. Four hundred years ago, nobody "normal" would have imagined that Humans would propser to great lengths and invent great things such as the Internet, Personal Computer etc.

As for the science, I'm not so sure how it could be made, considering I'm only just a 14 year old. But I do believe that it wouldn't be made over a range of 1000 years. Maximum should be the next 200 years. Why? Because our techonolgy, day by day, gets better and better. The jetpack will probably work by using onboard computers to calculate air pressure, air particle movement etc - just my imagination. We might not even need air. From my science class I've learnt that the Earth has some metal. I've concluded that maybe some how, we can make a jetpack by repelling the magnet far enough. This is not only a great idea but also environmentall friendly (as of now - in the next 200 years someone might find a consequence of using a jetpack.

Remember, Humans have always thought of things as impossible, but the geniuses never have the word "impossible" in their vocabulary.

Great question.

Answer 3

Well Jashua M., the future for solo human flight is in what was shown in the first movie of "Cody Banks".
A twin rotor, side by side above the pilot.
The military are using a similar vision of this on Vertical Takeoff and Landing Vihicles.Look it up just like it's writen or just write VTL.
Jet packs are too fuel consuming and dangerous.
Allso, I doubt that humans will still be around for the next few thousand years.At the rate of human destruction of the planets resources, mass genecide capabilities and the greed to want it all, I doubt humans will be around for so long.
But in space or on the moon, well, it's most likely that you will see humans equipt with a special suit that enables them to most from one place to another, space walks will evolve into a more freedom like suit with no cable attached to the shuttle or space station.
Try sky diving or parachuting to have that feeling of flying.
Hang glidding and para-sailing is also another way.
So if you realy want to fly, don't get high, head to the sky.

Answer 4

Jetpacks exist even now.
They are not widely used b/c they weigh as much as the "passenger", got fuel for less than a minute, and they are real difficult to control.

There had been work on backpack/personal helicopter too. Again bulky, and fuel does not last long. A movie about a teen spy kid (forgot the name, it's cheesy Disney release) has one fo the recent development, the thing with two ducted fans.

In the future, jetpacks can take off if we find an engine and fuel that can work for at least an hour and weigh less than the human it carries.
Control can be provided by electronics, it can't be much harder than Segway.

Problem of jets burning the body is easily resolved by having several jets pointing slighly away from body (so they can be sued for control too).

If you allow wings, there are plenty of powered hand-gliders and paraglider+propeller combos. These can stay up for like an hour, and let user cover some meaningful distance. Some of them are quite compact when folded, but unfolding them takes a while. Maybe some kind of memory shape material can make unfolding them eaiser (as in Batman Begins)

And do not overlook legal aspects of personal flight. There's safety of the flyers and others, which means training and testing and licences (just as with driving, only harder). Then there's potential for criminal and terrorist use -- shooting at flying target is much harder than on a car, and leaves bullets falling down in large area; ramming is again harer and more dangerous.

Answer 5

Isn't about to happen, and for good reason. There's no technological barriers... in fact as far back as the 1950's semi-lighter than air ships existed (c.f. The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed, John McPhee), and single person gyrocopters were on the market as far back as the thirties. But they were taken off the market when people starting decapitating themselves and others.

The problem is simply that the FAA will not let the public go cluttering up the flightways with this kind of technology. It is already very hard for them to keep flight lanes safe... if millions of people started flying around in one fashion or another it would be literally a bloodbath.

People have enough trouble being responsible within the confines of a highway. Imagine if they could fly.

Answer 6

We're going to need some sort of easy to use fuel supply. By fuel supply I mean anything... We could be using solar packs that thrust air out of the bottom. Also, I bet we'll find an interesting way to use magnets. If you think about what a magnet is, it can easily be explained (and created) by metal and electricity put together in the right fashion. Now stop and think with me about what the earth is ultimately made of. Somewhere, deep in the earth, it's metal. If we could find a way to electrify a layer of metal in the earth's shell, then we make a "jetpack" using the reverse polarization to propel ourselves. It would be an electric jetpack so when we want to land, we lower the voltage going to the magnet in our pack. Easy as pie... until every metal thing on earth either smashes through the ground or gets propelled into space... Either way, I'll be flying through the air! ha ha Honestly I bet we'll find a way to transmit magnetivity (if that's a word) in the same way we do radio frequencies, so that only proper "jetpacks" can be magnetic against the earth and all our frying pans in our kitchen and fillers in our mouth don't rocket off in any direction.

Answer 7

The problem has not been the ability to do this type of thing... there have been personal flight types of machines going back to the 60s. The problem has always been to make the power supply and fuel supply strong enough to power yet small enough to sustain distance and provide a back up should the primary fail. The current fueling/power options do not meet this criteria and thus it is still a quest for a practical solution. When this is found, personal flying objects will take off -- pun intended -- grin.

Answer 8

The technology may or may not be available. My problem with this is the same as flying cars. Too many too dangerous and possibly terrorism prone. Other than that it is very cool. Personally would love to try such a device. Maybe with superconductors or fields that would keep you up weather or not you are aware or not. You could get disoriented and loose all control of it and crash. At the end it is all fantasy, but is is fun

Answer 9

This is of course possible, but to date all jet packs use a non flamable fuel for obvious safety reasons. This of course severely limits their time of flight. The thought of some people flying around with flamable fuel on their backs is a mite frightening to me.
I suspect we will have smaller aircraft that encapsulate the entire body, made of light weight composite material. With the advances in engine design, it is possible to produce aircraft weighing a few 100 lbs that can sustain flight for a decent amount of time. The limiting factor has always been fuel & engine weight.
Chuckle, you can always use an ultra-lite. They are a lot of fun, unless you encounter severe weather.

Answer 10

Until another form of propulsion is innovated, a solo jet pack is not very feasible for flights longer than about a minute or two. But I'd say within the next 30 years, something may be developed.

Answer 11

I think they'll have some kind of antigravity suit for that. Probably within the next 50 to 100 years. The tech advancements and scientific discoveries are growing exponentially, so its only a matter of a short while.