How James Bond`s jet pack really works

05-Aug-2008 • Bond News

Lots of people fall asleep at night, and in their dreams they are able to fly like Superman. If you've ever had a dream like that, you know it feels great. The freedom is amazing - reports The News Tribune.

So it's not hard to understand why the idea of a jet pack is so appealing. Imagine being able to put on some kind of backpack and being able to fly wherever you want. We see it in lots of movies. It's easy to imagine. Unfortunately, it has been very hard to turn this concept into reality.

But the attempts have been fascinating. By looking at the attempts, it is possible to understand why it has been so hard.

The first and most famous attempt is called the Bell Rocket Belt. It and its descendants do allow a person to put on a backpack and fly.

The way it works is incredibly simple. On your back are three tanks. One is filled with pressurized nitrogen. The other two hold highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide. This is not the stuff you buy at the drug store. Drugstore hydrogen peroxide is almost all water. Purified hydrogen peroxide is powerful stuff, and it makes a very good fuel.

The pressurized nitrogen is there to push the hydrogen peroxide out of the other two tanks. The hydrogen peroxide runs through a pipe and hits a silver mesh catalyst. When it hits the silver, the hydrogen peroxide immediately turns into oxygen and water. The water flashes into high pressure steam because of the heat of the reaction. The steam is then directed out two nozzles to create thrust. The pilot controls the amount of thrust with a hand grip, and controls the direction of the thrust by moving his or her body. An experienced pilot makes flying with a rocket belt look incredibly easy.

This system works great. People have flown it in James Bond movies and Super Bowl appearances. The only problem is that every flight lasts less than a minute, because the backpack runs out of fuel. You just can't put enough hydrogen peroxide on your back to fly for very long.

How do you get more range from the same amount of fuel? You have to use some kind of engine to move a whole lot of air, rather than using direct rocket-like thrust. There are two ways to move a lot of air: propellers and jet engines. If you think about it, you can see why. To create thrust, you use that classic law of motion: "to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." So if you use a propeller or a fan to move air, you can take advantage of the reaction to that air's motion. Instead of carrying all of the "action" in your backpack, you take advantage of the air around you and move it with the propeller.

What we are seeing right now are people trying to fit propellers and jets into backpacks. There have been several attempts at this, the latest premiering at the 2008 Oshkosh air show. It's called the Martin Jetpack.

The Jetpack is a completely different animal. Instead of a relatively lightweight backpack, this machine weighs 250 pounds. It has a 200 horsepower engine powering two ducted propellers. To understand how big this engine is, keep in mind that many cars on the road today make do with less than 100 horsepower. The high-energy engine gives you enough power to get in the air. And it also lets you stay in the air for up to half an hour. With a top speed around 60 miles per hour, you can actually go somewhere with the Jetpack.

Will normal people be flying around with their Jetpacks anytime soon? It has taken almost 50 years to get to this point, so we can probably expect a few more years. And the initial prices seem to be in the north-of-$100,000 range right now. It will take time for prices to drop. Still, the possibility is looking a lot better than it did a few years ago.