Press On: Where are our jetpacks?
By Gary Dickson —
One of the most memorable grade school classroom activities I can recall was getting the new issue of My Weekly Reader in my hands and having the opportunity to peer into my future, because they seemed to always carry stories about what was going to take place in the coming years. It”s amazing how much of an impact those little schoolroom newspapers had on the students who were fortunate enough to attend a school that subscribed.
Being grade school children of the late 1950s, my wife and I recently reminisced about reading My Weekly Reader stories. They were of UFOs and, as for the future, articles about the great space race and how someday we would swallow a few pills that would serve as a nutritious, satisfying meal. But, most of all there was what many Baby Boomer children, apparently, took as a solid promise; that in our lifetime we would all have a jetpack for traveling freely to wherever we might want to go. We”d no longer be encumbered by streets and highways or slowed by rush hour traffic.
Over the years I basically lost my optimism that the personal jetpack would become a reality and that every working stiff would have one hanging in the garage. There were at least a couple of times when my jetpack excitement was rekindled, though and I was provided with hope. In 1965 Sean Connery, as James Bond flew one in “Thunderball.”
Then there was the grand opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles which was kicked off with a perfect 17-second, manned jetpack flight from one end of Los Angeles Coliseum to the other. More than 2.5 billion worldwide spectators viewed the event on television.
For me, that was about the last time I recall having the childhood jetpack promise memory refreshed until I recently picked up a bargain counter book called “Jetpack Dreams,” by Mac Montandon. I learned from reading the book that there are a pretty large number of people around the world who took the jetpack promise much more seriously than I ever did.
Clearly, Montandon is one of that number of diehards. His book chronicles the months of labor he expended on research and the world travel that it took him to connect with the past and present players in the world of jetpacking. Montandon does a wonderful job of telling the story of the origin of the jetpack, which came about because a stubborn engineer, Wendell Moore, at Bell Helicopters would never give up his own dream to design, build and fly a jetpack. Moore did succeed at his quest. In 1964 Bell jetpack pilots flew Moore ”s machine at least 400 exhibitions, including the New York World”s Fair.
Ironically, after Montandon combed the planet for modern jetpack builders, it appears that no one has really been able to improve upon Wendell Moore”s design, even though there are still quite a few still working on the project.
One of the funniest pieces out of the book was an anonymous Internet blog written in 2003. Here is an excerpt. “I am sick and tired of waiting for the personal jetpacks we were promised we were growing up in the ?60s! All those black and white films I saw in school of what the future would be like included personal jetpacks! It”s 40 (expletive) years later and even our cars still require that WE STEER THEM (also a lie from those films about the future). The only ?big” invention of the future we”ve gotten so far is the (expletive) Segway. It”s a scooter, dude!”
So far, the major obstacle is fuel. Until jetpack engineers overcome that problem, a flight can only last 20 to 30 seconds; not nearly long enough to make a personal jetpack practical for all of us to use. Just remember, though, the Wright brothers first flight only lasted 12 seconds. Maybe someday?
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. Email him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
