In attendance was Will Breaden-Madden. It's guys like Breaden-Madden who hold the jetpacks's future in their hands. A theoretical physics student at The Queen's University of Belfast, Ireland, Breaden-Madden imagines a device that would run on a combination of diesel and jet fuels. He hopes to solve the flight-length dilemma by using jet engines instead of rockets, which would allow for airborne missions of up to 15 minutes.If the technology could be developed to the point Breaden-Madden describes, the practical applications for everyone from Marines to local fire departments and EMS units to the average cubicle-jockey would be incredible. One dramatic irony for contemporary jetpack builders is this: Security concerns after September 11 made it much more difficult for them to advance their work-the fuel-transportation issues alone have stalled many projects-but it is exactly tragedies such as 9/11 that this machine could ameliorate. What if, one wonders, echoing 80 years of dreams, everyone had a jetpack?During his presentation at the convention, Bill Suitor-who chalked up more than 1,200 test flights and demonstrations in his career-said a working jetpack could eventually be mass-produced for about $15,000, though the initial development of a viable engine might cost closer to $1 million. "So if anyone here knows Bill Gates," Suitor joked, "Call him up. Get him to write a check for a million dollars."It's a good thought, but rather than Gates, I might call on his billionaire buddies Paul Allen and Richard Branson. Both Allen and Branson have contributed heavily to the space-tourism and space-entrepreneurship movements. Or I might call on Budget Suites' owner Robert Bigelow, who has invested $500 million in building-wait for it-an inflatable space hotel.So how about it, Mssrs. Allen, Branson, and Bigelow? Why keep futzing with daffy ideas about blow-up space motels when you can make history here on Earth? For a fraction of the investment, you could really change the world. Because apparently the future is, once again, now. Bill Suitor quotes his mentor Wendell Moore, who once said about jetpacks: "It's an idea that's fifty years ahead of its time." Mr. Suitor then adds, "Well, it's been forty-nine years."Top Image: Max "Bunny" Sparber has been puttering around on his personal jetpack since early 2008, touring famous locales in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and San Francisco-but mostly Minnesota. Why a jetpack? In his own words, "There is no better way to be a tourist than by gently floating by the world's many treasures and mysteries." His personal jetpack photographer Courtney Mault was there at every stop to document his journey for all posterity. Next stop: Omaha. See more of his continuing travels on flickror read his jetpack memoirs at sparberfans.blogspot.com.
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