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The Inquirer reports on a British inventor who has built a suit with six jets:
The Daedalus suit, designed by former royal marine reservist Richard Browning, looks like a comic book fans' dream, combining four miniaturised arm-mounted gas turbine engines and two hip-mounted versions to provide enough lift to enable the wearer to fly.
Daedalus, which took Browning a year to put together, also features a heads-up display in the helmet which keeps the user aware of fuel and engine performance and features built-in WiFi support to allow for the live transmission of data from the suit.
So far, Browning has only flown the suit a couple of metres above the ground, but he claims that the system will ultimately be able to fly at several hundred miles per hour and at thousands of feet.
Two YouTube videos that largely overlap in footage show the suit in use.
Additional coverage:
- Engadget
- New Atlas
- Slash Gear
- Wired UK (may have countermeasures against ad blockers)
- Red Bull
- independent.ie
Related story:
I Saw an Average Joe Fly a Jetpack and Nobody Died
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @07:08PM (2 children)
Four arm-mounted jet turbines, you say? More Nomex, please!
For those who don't want to watch a video, check the New Atlas [newatlas.com] link for pictures, or read my text description.
The hip-mounted turbines are as you'd expect, directly behind the buttocks and angled backwards to avoid scorched calves. You could still blast your feet by bending your knees, but it should be pretty friendly, as these things go. (Apparently an early version had engines mounted to the back of the calves. Worked about as well as you'd expect...)
The arm-mounted turbines are mounted in pairs on each forearm, one above and one below; the exhausts are just beyond the hand, and the paired mounting should nearly eliminate torque to the elbow joint. Unfortunately, the only thing limiting torque on the shoulder joint is arm positioning -- if your elbow is bent, your arm would try to fold up under your weight, as though you'd paused half-way in a pushup. Like pausing in mid-pushup, you could sustain this for some length of time (seconds to minutes, depending on your physical condition), but would eventually need to return to a position where more weight is on bones and less on muscle. For long-term flight, then, you would need to keep your elbows essentially straight, and vector the engines with your shoulders.
The tendency to scorch oneself is actually pretty well managed; the hip-pack is pointed a little aft, so your arms must be pointed somewhat forward for stable hovering; if you let your legs hang straight down, they remain out of harm's way. As one transitions to forward flight, the arms would swing closer to vertical, but wind would also tend to blow your legs back -- for moderate accelerations and airspeeds, everything should work out pretty well. You obviously still want fireproof, insulating armor on your legs (and everywhere else, too) to deal with incidental exhaust blasts, but you probably don't need to design for prolonged exposure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @07:12PM
Also, how long does the fuel last?
(Score: 2) by slinches on Thursday April 06 2017, @07:59PM
Yeah, burning yourself is a concern, but I'd be more worried about what happens when one of the turbines fail while spinning at near 100krpm. That seems like a good way to lose a limb or worse.