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The Martin Aircraft Company is seeking to introduce the world’s first commercial jetpack, a product that up to now has only been featured in movies.
In a landmark test flight, the jetpack took a dummy more than 5,000 feet in the air over New Zealand, making travel via a personalized rocket “a step closer.” It took off into the air at more than 800 feet per minute at Pudding Hill in Canterbury, New Zealand.
The test was part of “an intensive period of flight-testing” as the company is looking to roll out commercially manned and unmanned models within the next year and a half.
Martin attempted to assuage fears that the jetpack might not be safe, deploying a parachute in the video. "There is no height where a catastrophic failure needs to lead to significant injury," said its inventor, Glenn Martin.
The company noted that the rate at which the jetpack rose into the air, as well as the height it attained (800 feet/minute), both broke records. It spent around 10 minutes in the air.
“In this test we limited the jetpack to [an] 800 feet/minute climb so the chase helicopters could keep up,” said Martin.
According to the Dominion Post in New Zealand, the jetpack would cost between $4 million and $8 million to develop to make it commercially viable. That cost would increase if the company needed to hire a marketing team.
Martin Chief Executive Richard Lauder told the newspaper that the company is in the process of raising capital and is speaking with "wealthy private individuals" to accomplish that goal.
