Martin Jetpack offers personal flight for a cool £58,000

[Blowfeld]

Jetpacks have been the object of desire for gadget aficionados ever since Sean Connery took to the skies with a Bell Rocket Belt in the 1965 James Bond movie, Thunderball.

Since then, a Hollywood obsession with personal flight has seen the likes of Robocop, Iron Man and even R2-D2 take flight with some form of propulsion technology.

It still seems like science fiction, but Martin Aircraft - a New Zealand company founded in 1988 - has turned it into reality with the world's first commercially available solution; the Martin Jetpack.

The device, pictured above, measures a significant 5ft in height, 5ft in length and 5.5ft in width, and weighs nearly 250kg. Designed to strap onto the back of a single person, it can provide an individual with up to 30 minutes of flight time.

The majority of the Martin Jetpack's body is made from carbon fibre composite, and its two 1.7ft-diameter rotors are constructed from carbon fibre and kevlar. Providing the device with 200hp of power is a two-stroke, two-litre V4 petrol engine.

Martin Aircraft is now taking orders at $86,000 apiece (roughly £58,000), but the good news for US buyers is that the company's Jetpack is classed as an ultralight aircraft, and would-be buyers therefore won't require a pilot's license to fly one. What you will need to do, though, is pass the "Martin Aircraft Company approved training program" prior to receiving your order. The first training programmes will be taking place in New Zealand.

If flying around with a 30-minute, 250kg Martin Jetpack is your cup of tea, you're probably not going to be thinking too much about safety. Nonetheless, Martin Aircraft is reassuring potential buyers by pointing out that its Jetpack features a wave of security measures - including an internal roll cage and a built-in Ballistic Parachute system that "enables the pilot to be saved from a catastrophic failure".

Deliveries are estimated to take place 12 months from the date of order, so you could be taking to the skies this time next year.

This story can be found at Martin Jetpack

Screw retirement! I am getting one of these!

[katied]

I want one! I'd go everywhere..the gym, the grocery store, you name it!

[Kristatos]

I'd probably use it once or twice, find it incredibly uncomfortable and go back to taking the bus.

[Mazer Rackham]

I don't honestly know I'd do with one. It's cool but after dragging it out of the garage and flying to work, what the hell do you do with it? Lock it to the bike rack?

[katied]

I don't honestly know I'd do with one. It's cool but after dragging it out of the garage and flying to work, what the hell do you do with it? Lock it to the bike rack?

To say nothing of insuring it..I would think insuring something like a jetpack would be crazy expensive!

[Dr. No]

I want one too but would be too scared to fly it. I know I would crash it in a tree first day. Like my kites and giant Styrofoam planes I had briefly as a kid.....And like my children's kites and airplanes. The trees eat them all