Some Technologies Are Slow to Arrive

By | March 10, 2009
2 Comments

Or, as The Wall Street Journal puts it:

The Jetpack: An Idea Whose Time Has Never Come, but Won’t Go Away

….The question is whether any normal person would do this. Pilots flying the devices jet around with 1,300-degree steam shooting inches from their legs while they worry about landing before the pack runs out of fuel in 30 seconds.

I think jetpacks will become increasingly popular, but they are a long way from being practical. They have that in common with lighter-than-air aircraft. People like the idea of blimps and dirigibles, but by and large the practical applications aren’t there. Until a technology has a practical application — and it’s hard to imagine one for jetpacks until they become a lot safer and enjoy a much greater range than they do today — it is destined to remain a niche (in the case of blimps) or cult (in the case of jetpacks) technology.

Niche is one peg up from cult. If jetpacking were to, pardon the expression, “take off” as an extreme sport (which has been predicted for a few years now) it would achieve niche status.

But the dream of sustained, individual jet- or rocket-powered flight, say something like this…

…is probably going to remain a dream for a long time to come.

  • http://theDailyOtaku.blogspot.com MissedCall

    Its dangerousness to usefulness ration is like nine billion to one. Coincidentally, nine billion is about what they run. (Well, ok, more like 70k…)

  • MDarling

    Jetpacks and personal flying gear is tantalizing.

    But I think for the reason mentioned – jets are a poor choice. Instead – until we can do cool jets- we need devices than can generate loft, thrust and manueverability.

    I picture something like this-

    http://www.allmoviephoto.com/photo/2003_agent_cody_banks_012.html

    except with the intuitive maneuverability of a segway.