JetPacks, anyone?

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We know this technology has existed for nearly four decades: Those strap-on cold jetpacks that used to send test pilots zipping around JPL proving grounds like very nervous Rocketeers. The things were celebrated in sci-fi and fantasy entertainment (from James Bond to Gilligan's Island) for a number of years, but the real technology was eventually scrapped---like the laser-cannon tanks of the 1970s, jetpacks were deemed more trouble and expense than they were worth.

I'm certainly not suggesting that JYW should threaten anyone's life with such a dangerous experiment; but what about using crash-test dummies? It would be quite a challenge for a team to levitate, let's say, a full-sized dummy 10 feet in the air for the LONGEST period of time using a bodged-up jetpack (without rocketing the thing out of a given test area). I can hear the laughter now.

VeIoc

-- Charles Austin (Veiocity@aol.com), January 06, 2001

Answers

And, I mean, at LEAST 10 feet of levitation. And the jetpack NEEDN'T be self-contained. How much more amusing if pneumatic hoses were affixed to the jetpack, powered by compressors at ground-level? Heh. And, of course, the team would NAME the crash-test dummy, who would become team member #5---this has the potential of being the funniest JYW episode. }=]

VeIocity@ao

-- Charles Austin (Veiocity@aol.com), January 06, 2001.


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