If This Is The Future, Where Is My Jetpack?
November 6, 2015 2:55 AM Subscribe
Jetman (previously, previously, previously) and wingman over Dubai in formation flight with A380 (YouTube).
Behind the scenes video.
Discussion by Emirates of the flight planning involved in ensuring, among other things, that they didn't reenact the sad fate of Stratogale as seen in The Incredibles.
We might be seeing the future of flight there. First-class passengers inside sipping cocktails, while coach-fare passengers are handed their own set of wings and told to do their best to follow the airplane.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:43 AM on November 6, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by Dip Flash at 4:43 AM on November 6, 2015 [12 favorites]
Surprised this hasn't been an action sequence in a Bond, Fast & Furious or similar film yet - infiltrating an airliner via jetpack.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:44 AM on November 6, 2015
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:44 AM on November 6, 2015
On the one hand, I love aviation and crazy stunts like this. On the other hand, plutocrats gonna plutocrat, and we're regularly reminded how Dubai is the country that slave-or-nearly-so labor built. This is my conflicted face.
Also: Joining up with that bird must've been pretty intense for the wing fliers -- gives new meaning to "caution, wake turbulence."
posted by Alterscape at 6:55 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also: Joining up with that bird must've been pretty intense for the wing fliers -- gives new meaning to "caution, wake turbulence."
posted by Alterscape at 6:55 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
So, their suits looks more like a powered hang glider than the common notion of what a jetpack would be (ie. they basically operate as a fixed-wing aircraft, just like the A380 that they're distressingly close to)
Also, say what you want about government regulation, but I'm really glad that this would be illegal in the US. The FAA knows what it's doing. Commercial air travel (and the fact that it's as safe as it is) is an unprecedented success of international cooperation, science, and effective regulation.
posted by schmod at 10:08 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, say what you want about government regulation, but I'm really glad that this would be illegal in the US. The FAA knows what it's doing. Commercial air travel (and the fact that it's as safe as it is) is an unprecedented success of international cooperation, science, and effective regulation.
posted by schmod at 10:08 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Well, not a jetpack. Can't take off from ground. It's a glider with mini jet engines, which must be dropped from a helicopter. And that plane must be going super slow.
It's gotta be a thrill ride. Beautiful vid.
posted by artdrectr at 10:32 AM on November 6, 2015
It's gotta be a thrill ride. Beautiful vid.
posted by artdrectr at 10:32 AM on November 6, 2015
Does anyone but me call the lower ab workout tower in the gym The Jetpack?
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:41 AM on November 6, 2015
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:41 AM on November 6, 2015
And that plane must be going super slow.
Which is exactly what you really don't want a huge passenger jet flying at low altitude on a very hot day to do.
posted by schmod at 10:51 AM on November 6, 2015
Which is exactly what you really don't want a huge passenger jet flying at low altitude on a very hot day to do.
posted by schmod at 10:51 AM on November 6, 2015
Somehow, I'd have hoped the new gilded age that we're all financing with our crashed wage-slave economies would at least be a grand new universe of challenges for explorers, adventurers, and and visionaries...but no, it's pretty much all frat boy bullshit with a corporate sponsor.
posted by sonascope at 11:32 AM on November 6, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by sonascope at 11:32 AM on November 6, 2015 [7 favorites]
It's a glider with mini jet engines
It's not a glider with engines any more than the A380 is a glider with engines. It can stay aloft as long as it has fuel. It's more like a tiny plane that you strap to your back.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 12:53 PM on November 6, 2015
It's not a glider with engines any more than the A380 is a glider with engines. It can stay aloft as long as it has fuel. It's more like a tiny plane that you strap to your back.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 12:53 PM on November 6, 2015
Why wouldn't you be able to do this in the US in an air show or special effects/ cinema context, which is what this was? The airspace was cleared, the choreography was carefully planned and simulated, civil aviation authorities were involved- while there was risk, it was managed. It wasn't like a couple guys with jet packs decided to go and meet up with the 8 am flight from Tokyo on final approach and shoot some GoPro video of it.
posted by rockindata at 1:12 PM on November 6, 2015
posted by rockindata at 1:12 PM on November 6, 2015
I'd guess that 380 has no seats, people, luggage and almost no people on board.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:20 PM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:20 PM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Incoming, deploy chaff and flares, take evasive action!
posted by boilermonster at 9:38 PM on November 6, 2015
posted by boilermonster at 9:38 PM on November 6, 2015
EndsOfInvention: It's arguably more glider than plane. Planes take off from the ground, but this wing has to be dropped out of the sky to be functional. Big difference.
Even a hang glider can stay aloft if there is enough air current.
posted by artdrectr at 1:23 AM on November 10, 2015
Even a hang glider can stay aloft if there is enough air current.
posted by artdrectr at 1:23 AM on November 10, 2015
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posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:26 AM on November 6, 2015