The Rocketeer & Jetpacks
Dave Stevens’ 1982 comic, and the 1991 Disney film, follows a Depression-era stunt pilot who discovers a mysterious jetpack and becomes a vigilante. The jetpack is the purest expression of aeromythic desire: flight without vehicle, without wing, without anything between the body and the sky except thrust.
Real Jetpacks
Bell Aerosystems developed the “Bell Rocket Belt” for the U.S. Army in the early 1960s, a hydrogen peroxide-powered device capable of approximately 30 seconds of flight. It appeared in James Bond’s Thunderball (1965) and at the 1964 World’s Fair. The dream of the personal jetpack has been “10 or 20 years away” for over 60 years.
Tags
Connected Entries