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British inventor Richard Browning lifted off from the shore of Vancouver Harbor on Thursday in a personal flight suit that inspired references to comic superhero 'Iron Man.'
Using thrusters attached to his arms and back, Browning flew in a circle and hovered a short distance from the ground, captivating attendees at a prestigious TED Conference.
The personal flight suit is capable of propeling wearers much higher and faster, according to its creators.
"The hypothesis was that the human mind and body, if properly augmented, could achieve some pretty cool stuff," the extreme athlete and engineer said at the gathering a short time earlier.
Browning told of experimenting with various numbers and arrays of essentially miniature jet engines on his limbs.
Along the way, he said, there were more than a few crashes to the ground.
"The whole journey was about trying and failing, and learning from that," Browning said.
The first reasonably stable, six-second flight with the gear inspired his team to press on.
His startup, Gravity, formally debuted about a month ago with an early-version suit called Daedalus.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday April 29 2017, @07:46PM (2 children)
But I did not even see any "captivated attendees at a prestigious TED Conference" in the video. Nor Vancouver Harbor. Did I blink? And what is a TED conference?
This is stunt equipment for Hollywood. It looks fundamentally unstable and requiring around a 0.01 percentile level of strength and fitness. I've seen previous jet pack demonstrations that have gone much further and higher than this guy has done.
(Score: 2) by gringer on Saturday April 29 2017, @09:17PM
And what is a TED conference?
A conference where a group of people with lots of money share "ideas worth spreading" with one another. It only happens once a year in the US.
This is distinct from a TEDx conference, where a group of people with a bit of money share "ideas worth spreading" with one another. They're all over the place. See here for one example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyM731JThUU [youtube.com]
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @10:39PM
This is stunt equipment for Hollywood. It looks fundamentally unstable and requiring around a 0.01 percentile level of strength and fitness. I've seen previous jet pack demonstrations that have gone much further and higher than this guy has done.
Call me when John Goodman gets one working.