ok what the HELL!? Jetpack scene in "Out of the Blue"

[Newbie 0]

I just watched Out of the Blue (nice DVD btw).

In one scene around a swimming pool, some guy flys what looks to be a real jetpack around a swimming pool, coming to land right on a small stage.

WHAT THE HELL?! When did we get jetpacks? Has anyone got any info on what the hell this was all about, and any more info on the actual project itself?

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[shropshire 0]

Dont you remember the opening of the Olympics 84(? I think) in LA some guy flew into the arean on a Jet Pack.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[chutem 0]

It has avery limited flight time if I remember right, seems like it was in the 20-40 second range. I saw one video where they edited together a bunch of short flights to look like a long one. Looks like fun just don't run out of fuel!
James

[pilotdave 0]

http://www.rocketmaninc.com/

You can see the rocket belt scene in this trailer:
http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1748

Dave

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

There is only one working/flying example of the rocket pack left. As I recall, it was bought from a private museum collection and put back into service. There are only a couple of people qualified to fly it. Troy Widgery (GoFAST!) was sponsoring it at Panama City. It runs on hydrogen peroxide and flies for exactly 30 seconds. The footage you saw was from the PST Panama City meet in 2003. I have to tell you that that fucking rocket pack is possibly the loudest thing I have ever heard. It was a pure spectacle seeing that thing fly at The Spinnaker (the bar which served as the HQ for the beach boogie.)

[Newbie 0]

damn you actually saw it fly? I wish i could have been there to see that. I remember the one from the 84 Olympics but i always thought that was a crane LOL.

Anyhoo, thanks for the further info. I wonder how much he paid for that thing.

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[Newbie 0]

thanks Dave

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[ryoder 1,590]

Quote

I just watched Out of the Blue (nice DVD btw).

In one scene around a swimming pool, some guy flys what looks to be a real jetpack around a swimming pool, coming to land right on a small stage.

WHAT THE HELL?! When did we get jetpacks? Has anyone got any info on what the hell this was all about, and any more info on the actual project itself?

You've never seen the 1965 movie "Thunderball"?

There is a lot of history here:
http://www.rocketbelt.nl/site.html

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[Newbie 0]

Yeah but like the 84 Olympics, i seriously thought "no way is that for real" and put it down to special effects/good props etc.

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[ryoder 1,590]

Quote

I have to tell you that that fucking rocket pack is possibly the loudest thing I have ever heard.

Funny trivia in the Thunderball section of http://www.rocketbelt.nl/site.html

"The sound was dubbed with that of a CO2 fire extinguisher instead of the original high whining very loud sound of the actual belt."

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[Newbie 0]

nice site, thanks

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

I was standing right there, drunk, during both flights. It was bad ass. On the last flight, the one shown in the video where he lands right next to the giant inflatable GoFast can, he nearly runs out of fuel because the can was waving back and forth right where he intended to land. It was almost as cool as nine-lives and the other guys hucking off the parasail with their BASE rigs just offshore, in front of the bar.

Did I mention the rocketman thing was LOUD?

[billvon 2,881]

>WHAT THE HELL?!

Jetpacks have been around since the 60's. They are dangerous, noisy, heavy and can only make short flights, which is why they aren't more popular. They run on hydrogen peroxide, which is probably the simplest, safest rocket propellant out there. Its specific impulse is low, but it's very easy to use - just pass it over a catalyst (usually a silver screen) and the H2O2 breaks down to H2O and O2 (steam and oxygen, in other words.)

This propulsion system was used in World War II to power torpedoes, and was used in some early spacecraft for attitude control jets. Most applications use it inside a pressurized tank. The tank is pressurized with an inert gas (like nitrogen or argon) and the peroxide is forced out the bottom under pressure. It hits the catalyst, decomposes into steam, and the steam goes flying out the exhaust to provide the impulse to move the vehicle. The throttle then becomes a simple valve on the bottom of the tank.

Because of its low specific impulse (around 200 seconds, best case) you'll never get long flight times out of a peroxide engine. There are various ongoing projects to use either ducted fans or turbojet engines to do the same thing. Since they use air as the reaction mass they have the potential for staying aloft a whole lot longer.

[mccurley 1]

I saw one fly at the Canadian National Exibition in Toronto when I was a kid about 12yrs old about 1966.
Second nisiest thing at the show after the Bluebird Jetcar.

Had a front row seat and thought I was going to deaf after that one

Watch my video Fat Women
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWkEky8GoI

[sundance 1]

I remember seeing one of these things fly back around 1970 at the Utah State Fair. The guy was in the air for about 20 - 30 seconds and it was the loudest thing I've ever heard. I was quite astounded by it at the time.

One of the surest signs that intelligent life exists in outer space is that none of it has tried to contact us.

[Ron 10]

Quote

Jetpacks have been around since the 60's. They are dangerous, noisy, heavy and can only make short flights, which is why they aren't more popular. They run on hydrogen peroxide, which is probably the simplest, safest rocket propellant out there. Its specific impulse is low, but it's very easy to use - just pass it over a catalyst (usually a silver screen) and the H2O2 breaks down to H2O and O2 (steam and oxygen, in other words.)

This propulsion system was used in World War II to power torpedoes, and was used in some early spacecraft for attitude control jets. Most applications use it inside a pressurized tank. The tank is pressurized with an inert gas (like nitrogen or argon) and the peroxide is forced out the bottom under pressure. It hits the catalyst, decomposes into steam, and the steam goes flying out the exhaust to provide the impulse to move the vehicle. The throttle then becomes a simple valve on the bottom of the tank.

Because of its low specific impulse (around 200 seconds, best case) you'll never get long flight times out of a peroxide engine. There are various ongoing projects to use either ducted fans or turbojet engines to do the same thing. Since they use air as the reaction mass they have the potential for staying aloft a whole lot longer.

OK Bill sounds simple...start building one and lets get stupid

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[NickDG 23]

Here's a story about a jetpack with a skydiving connection.

Chris Wentzel was an Elsinore jumper and a camera person back in the day. He was a friendly man, very well known in the skydiving community, and a good jumper. I was very surprised he became involved in all this . . .

Chris was also involved with the "10 Miles High" project in the early 1980s. This was a civilian attempt to set a freefall distance record. They had the space suits lined up and were begining to practice for it, but the effort ran out of funds.

http://www.sundayherald.com/print28401

NickD BASE 194

[Newbie 0]

Wow what a crazy story! Is that true? I would like to believe it, but it sounds like something straight out of a prime slice of pulp fiction. What has happened to Wentzel? Was he ever sentenced?

Thanks for that, made for some intriguing reading!

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[NickDG 23]

Yes, unfortunately for all involved, the story is true.

Chris Wentzel was facing life in prison, but due to having no criminal record, the judge saw this as a bad decision by an otherwise law abiding man. His attorney finished his appeal to the judge with, "This is a different man than many of the people you've sentenced. If there was ever a man that would never be back here again under any circumstances, then this is that man."

The judge sentenced Chris to seven years in prison. The other fellow, Stanley, got life.

There's another story about this in the Nov 23, 2002 issue of the LA Times. It's a bit long to enter as text here, but maybe you can try the LA Times Archives.
Here are the two photos accompanying the article.

NickD BASE 194

[dsbbreck 0]

Ok, now I'm extremely curious. Could this have been the same rocket belt they used in Panama City?

David

"Socrates wasn't killed because he had the answer.......he was killed because he asked the question."

[Newbie 0]

Quote

Ok, now I'm extremely curious. Could this have been the same rocket belt they used in Panama City?

I don't know if it was the exact same one - the one from Panama city that Chuck saw - but it was the "Bell Rocketbelt" in both instances - for more info on the Bell, see that link posted above (www.robetbelt.nl)

I imagine that Bell had a number of these things kicking about - they don't seem TOO hard to produce, and i'm sure they needed a couple of them in case they got flown into the ground during testing. My guess is that somehow the guys in the article Nick DG posted got ahold of one of them, and the guys at RocketbeltInc did the same. Quite where they got them from is anyones guess.

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

From all that I can gather, there were only two units left intact anywhere. One in a James Bond collection in the UK and another one that was in another private museum somewhere. The one currently being flown is, as far as I know, the only refurbished flying example left.