The only way to travel

August 15, 2005 3:21 PM

Build your own Rocket Belt (Jet Pack)! Jealous of 007 in Thunderball? Missed that eBay rocket belt sale a few years ago? Have a lust to fly like a bird (sort of) with a real rocket belt? Then build your own rocket belt just like Stuart Ross. Watch out for stuck throttles (avi file) though.
posted by caddis (28 comments total)

Am I a bad person because I skipped right to the stuck throttle video? No?...good 'cause that was friggin' hilarious!
posted by wavespy at 3:27 PM on August 15, 2005

the stuck throttle vid IS friggin hilarious. this guy will probably end up killing himself, but it will be for the embetterment of the entire human race.
posted by gnutron at 3:28 PM on August 15, 2005

The stuck throttle vid reminded me of a good old pre WW2 slapstick comedy reel.
posted by aaronscool at 3:45 PM on August 15, 2005

For gawds sake keep my kids away from this website!
posted by tkchrist at 3:55 PM on August 15, 2005

Where's MY jetpack? I mean, we now have communicators and personal computers and bionic babies with cochlear implants, we have genetically engineered grains and transcontinental jetliners with Prada boutiques or whatever. I ask again: Where is my JETPACK?!
posted by longsleeves at 3:59 PM on August 15, 2005

longsleeves, perhaps you should contact this Stuart fellow about a test flying opportunity....

*watches Stuck Throttle video again*

Good luck with that!
posted by gurple at 4:11 PM on August 15, 2005

"These videos were taken with a digital camera, of video on a TV screen."

You can build a jet pack, but you can't buy a $99 video-capture card? We each have our priorities I suppose....
posted by nomisxid at 4:13 PM on August 15, 2005

too bad there's no audio, i would pay money to have heard that!
posted by reality at 4:15 PM on August 15, 2005

Oh god, this is making my afternoon. Thanks!

*snort-giggles helplessly some more*
posted by scody at 4:20 PM on August 15, 2005

Um.... Awesome? Yeah. Fuck yeah.
posted by klangklangston at 4:32 PM on August 15, 2005

Just need a mask and a Luger and you're all set.


posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:36 PM on August 15, 2005

Now I've got something good to look forward to when I get home.

C-D, looks more like a Mauser than a Luger but why would the Rocketeer have any German gun anyway? That just doesn't make sense given the time period it was set in.
posted by fenriq at 4:51 PM on August 15, 2005

this guy will probably end up killing himself, but it will be for the embetterment of the entire human race

And a likely recipient of a Darwin Award.
posted by ericb at 4:55 PM on August 15, 2005

Now I want my jet car.
posted by maxsparber at 5:14 PM on August 15, 2005

Now I want my jet car

Ah, yes ... the 1995 Darwin Awards Winner - Jet Assisted Take-Off Car (later determined to be bogus).
posted by ericb at 5:50 PM on August 15, 2005

why would the Rocketeer have any German gun anyway

Because it took place on the eve of WW2, and the Nazis are trying to get the experimental rocketpack for their scientists to create a legion of Nazi Rocketmen. But yeah, it's definately more Mauser. Mein bad.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:43 PM on August 15, 2005

This is why God invented science.
posted by klangklangston at 7:04 PM on August 15, 2005

Would you saw off your leg for the flying car?
posted by stenseng at 10:47 PM on August 15, 2005

If I saw off both do I get two, or just one SUV type flying car?
posted by Balisong at 10:54 PM on August 15, 2005

Okay, finally got a chance to watch it and it was worth the wait. I laughed loud enough to wake the baby. And now I get no sleep tonight. Maybe I'll just sit and watch the stuck throttle video a few hundred times.
posted by fenriq at 11:47 PM on August 15, 2005

Audio track transcript for the stuck throttle video:

Stuart Ross: "Right, baby steps... hop.. hop.. Just a little juice."

Erik Bengtsson: "You're good, I gotcha"

Stuart: "Right, coming back around, just little steps, almost floating now."

Erik: "Right, take in some more line? I'm gonna hoist now, ok?"

Stuart: "WAIT! WAIT, GODDAMNIT, I AM NOT A PINAAAAATAAAAA!" (Stuart swings wildly from right to left)

Erik: "WHAT? HIGHER? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE DAMN JETS!"

Stuart: "Goddamnit Erik, you crazy Swede! Not higher! PUT ME DOWN! oh... shit..."

Erik: "HIGHER! OK! THROTTLE DOWN? NOT YET! UP! UP! OK!!"

Stuart: "Woooooaaaaaaaaah shit! It's stuck! Fuckin' stuck throttle fucker stuck! Oh fuck, it's fucking stuck!!! Woah! Woah nelly! Woah shit! WOOOOOOOAH!!"

(Insanely loud hissing noise, crash.)

Stuart: "Ooof! My head!"

Erik: "Ooof! My gut!"

(Both subjects exit video frame to the right at high speed.)

(Off screen, mixed) "Ow fuck damnit WOAH! Get off me!"

(Stuart Ross reenters screen from right, alone and rotating wildly.)

Stuart: "Woooooaaaaaah SHIT! WOAH WOAH WOAH!" (Sounds of hissing jets and cursing Dopplers wildly as Ross spins out of control, with sound of feet and limbs repeatedly striking test platform.)

Erik, offscreen, laughing: "Hahahaha! You should have seen your face! What happened? You ok? Hahahaha!" (Runs on screen from right)

Stuart, shaking uncontrollably: "Ow. Ow. Damn. Ow..."

(Video ends.)
posted by loquacious at 1:24 AM on August 16, 2005

is it just me, or does it look like this guy is being lifted by a wire? check out the 2 lift-off vids...
posted by xmattxfx at 7:01 AM on August 16, 2005

I think xmattxfx is right, at the very end of "stuck throttles" it looks like you can see the wire.

Also, the way he moves around when he's out of control, he appears to be swinging around in the air. I think it's a hoax.

Funny video, though.
posted by F4B2 at 11:05 AM on August 16, 2005

I think xmattxfx is right, at the very end of "stuck throttles" it looks like you can see the wire.

Also, the way he moves around when he's out of control, he appears to be swinging around in the air. I think it's a hoax.

Beacause the flight was tethered...

"UPDATE AUGUST 5, 2005
Stuart has continued with tethered flights.
At the last tethered flight before going untethered the throttle valve got stuck in open position! He could not shut the valve!! "
posted by thomcatspike at 11:42 AM on August 16, 2005

It's a tethered flight, a fairly common safety procedure.
posted by beowulf573 at 11:44 AM on August 16, 2005

the wire.
Look at the last picture. A rope is hanging from the tree for maybe controlling his sway movements while in the air. Then a chain has also been attached to him inorder that he is near the ground during the flight.
posted by thomcatspike at 11:53 AM on August 16, 2005

All aboard the clue train...
posted by loquacious at 12:35 AM on August 17, 2005

They do that so you don't fly away go bye bye.
posted by stenseng at 8:50 AM on August 18, 2005