Posted on 09/30/2020 9:54:05 AM PDT by BenLurkin
If given the green light by ambulance service chiefs, the paramedic powered by lightweight jet-packs would flit across treacherous terrain within minutes to reach stranded casualties.
In an awe-inspiring test flight, the inventor Richard Browning, looking distinctly like Marvel’s Iron Man, put the suit through its paces on the Langdale Pikes.
Browning could be seen shooting across the grassy knolls at heights of between 3 and 6 metres (10 to 20ft) in search of a party of walkers simulating a casualty scenario. Within minutes the woman and young girl had been located in a search that would normally have taken rescuers more than an hour on foot.
The 41-year-old said the 1050bhp suit, which retails at £340,000 and has a top speed in excess of 80mph, is technically capable of reaching an altitude of 12,000ft, although for safety purposes it is flown lower.
It uses two micro jet engines similar to those used on aircraft on each arm and one on the back allowing for movement to be controlled.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Won’t be any retirees in this group.
Once this is refined and made safer, it will be a good tool for paramedics and other medical personnel who need to be at an accident fast.
Add a pod for the patient and fly him out of there.
Rule 1. Don’t try to land in dry grass or brush.
that’s gotta be like doing 800 pushups!
Now if Snake Plisskin had one of those...
All the maneuverability comes down to your own human balance and coordination. If you point the jets increasingly down you go up and if you flare them out you go down again.
bttt
Okay. So now you have two people stranded in a difficult to reach place.
“is technically capable of reaching an altitude of 12,000ft, although for safety purposes it is flown lower.”
At more than a few miles per hour, anything over 10 or 15 feet might as well be 12,000. The differences to the pilot would be academic at best.
They brought this to our Motorsports club. I watched a couple of members have a go at it. Little success after extensive training. It is not an easy learning curve, at all. I also question both hands being needed for propulsion. Heaven forbid a nose itch! The inventor did pretty well with it, but only went a few feet off the ground.
I don’t see anything that this jetpack can do that a helicopter with a rescue hoist can’t do, and do much safer.
God help the pilot if even one of those multiple hobby-grade jet engines flames out.
It’s an interesting contraption.
But I can’t help thinking that if it were just a bit larger - maybe the size of a telephone booth (youngins can google what that is) you could offer the operator greater protection, provide some storage space, and utilize a traditional control interface (possibly with computer management to prevent oopsies) and still be able to access remote locations.
If you have hives and scratch them, you’ll go all over the place!
It’s all fun and games until one of them flies into the side of a building.
When they have a miracle tool for extracting 300 lb code patients from a third floor walkup I’ll be impressed.
Dr. No?
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