`Thunderball` style jetpacks take off again in Denver
24-May-2007 • Bond News
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Jetpak International has its corporate headquarters in a Denver garage, and Scott is the test pilot. Recently Scott flew around Red Rocks with the 800-horsepower rocket on his back, and on Tuesday he did a flight from the lower balcony of Genesee's Sleeper House to the upper one. He said the winds made things tricky, but the actual flight went off without a hitch.
Scott's flights will be featured in an upcoming Warren Miller film.
Dan Wilson, author of the book "Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide To The Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived," is one of those who thought everybody would be flying jetpacks by now.
"For me the jetpack is a symbol really of all the technology that I thought we should have by now but which we don't seem to," said Wilson.
The jetpack first appeared in the 1920s on the back of Buck Rogers. It really captured everyone's fancy then and it's never let go. But, there has been little progress since the 1960s, when James Bond took off â and landed safely! â in "Thunderball."
Scott admits that you have to be bold and a bit bananas to fly these barely-tamed contraptions.
"You have no parachute," said Scott. "No emergency manual for this thing. You get in trouble up there in the air, you're like calling 9-1-1, 'God or something, please help out now!'"
The jetpack only has 33 seconds of fuel and it's hot (1300 degrees), heavy (135 pounds), and hard to fly, and they can only make short hops (about half a minute).
Scott said he doesn't think the FAA would be ready for it if everyone had a jetpack.
"They (would) be peeling people off buildings," said Scott.
Scott flies at shows, stadiums, casinos, all around the world -- and it always draws a crowd, even at unscheduled flights like the one at Red Rocks outside Denver.
Is he a pioneer or just crazy? "Both," Scott says.
Click here to watch videos of the jetpack in action on CBS Denver.
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