For budding Bonds, the real-life jetpack is ready for take-off
Published at 12:01AM, November 29 2014
There are, doubtless, more romantic ways of announcing the arrival of a technology that, for generations of children, is the ultimate Utopian vision of the future.
After decades of failed promises, failed prototypes — and failed rocket thrusters — there was a comforting banality to the Martin Aircraft Company’s statement. They are, they said, floating their jetpack business on the Australian stock market.
What is more, the first commercial device is expected not in the next decade, but in the next two years. Could the age of the jetpack, envisioned in so many comic books and science fiction films, at last be upon us?
Glenn Martin, the New Zealander who started working on a device 30 years ago, certainly thinks so. His one-man aircraft, the result of much tinkering in a garage and £10 million of investment, is technically not a jetpack — instead of hot air it uses a pair of rotors. It has already proven itself, flying to 5,000ft at speeds of up to 45mph for 30 minutes, and — no small advantage — it has never exploded.
The question is, at a planned cost of about £100,000, who will buy it? While 1950s comic books were united in the belief that the only unknown about 21st century commuting would be whether it was by jetpack or monorail, Mr Martin does not see private transportation as the main market for his device, at least for now. Instead, the company considers its most obvious applications to be in emergency services.
“I think the way to look at it is that it is very much a motorbike in the sky,” Peter Coker, the company’s chief executive, has said to Australian reporters. With police, fire and ambulances, “rapid deployment is really what you are after, to be able to get the first respondent there relatively quickly. You can get to a direct point using the jetpack and you can get into some very confined spaces that helicopters can’t get to.”
He also said that there had been interest from farmers, including an avocado farmer, who need to get across their land quickly. Once the company has built a business in emergency services and farming, it will move on to the personal leisure market, and a cheaper device. Which is a great aspiration, but should you invest?
“I think investors can see the long-term advantage of the jetpack,” he said. He did say, in words even more apposite than with most initial public offerings: “Obviously, investors have to look at the risk profile.”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/a ... 282070.ece
