For years, our cultural litmus test for futuristic technology has been the personal jet pack. And for years, our jet-based future has remained ever-so-slightly out of reach, leaving generations of terrestrially-bound dreamers demanding those rocket packs we were promised by the Jetsons, James Bond, and Iron Man alike.
But, for those of us who still look to the skies and imagine a world of personal flying machines, meet our new hero: Yves Rossy. Rossy and his protege Vince Reffet are the daredevil pilots of a pair of astonishingly powerful jet packs the likes of which are enough to make even the most hardened aviation grouch giddy with excitement the moment the flying duo soar overhead.
And soar they do.
This just-released video, created by action sports brand xDubai, features Rossy and Reffet performing astonishing aerial feats as they zoom around and through Dubai’s picturesque cityscape.
[youtube ratio=”0.5625″ position=”standard” ]
This isn’t Dubai’s first high-altitude adventure to be caught on tape. Last Spring, naturalist group Freedom Conservation strapped a small camera to the back of an imperial eagle, filming its flight down from atop the Burj Khalifa skyscraper. That eagle, however, was not equipped with the four-engine jet pack worn by Rossy and Reffert when they take to the skies. According to the duo’s website, each flying apparatus weighs 55 kilograms, has an average speed of 200 kilometers per hour, and can fly anywhere from six to 13 minutes under its own power.
We may be a ways away from abandoning the automobile in favor of a wholly jet pack-based system of transportation, but Rossy and Reffert have given us a glimpse at the incredible power, and acrobatic beauty that could still be ours, in a (hopefully not too) far-off future where everyone can simply take to the skies and soar.
[via sploid]
