Using a jet engine, rather than a rocket, is one solution to extending the range of rocket-belt-like devices. Bell Aerosystems and Williams collaborated on a Bell Jet Belt, but it hasn't flown for nearly four decades. Modern cruise missiles descended from the compact engine Williams developed.

It's much harder to duplicate a jet belt than a rocket belt. (For one thing, governments don't like cruise missile engines to be for sale.) Nevertheless, Richard Brown (among others) in the UK has been persevering. He's built a unique engine of his own design.

Mr. Brown has just posted video of his flight tests, which employ a multi-axis rig that limits the trouble he can get into.



Mr. Brown has also written a good account of his device's development.

Mac Montandon's new book Jetpack Dreams has just been published. I met Mac at the Rocketbelt Convention in 2006, and since then we have corresponded occasionally. He set out to chronicle the past and future of the jetpack, and emotions about the jetpack.

It's being promoted very effectively, having been reviewed by Wall Street Journal, Time, and GQ. And it popped up at Boingboing yesterday.

Mac has also started a Jetpack Dreams blog and you can read excerpts from the book at his site. I liked this:

As I began telling friends and colleagues about my plan, I quickly realized that I was far from alone. In fact, just about every (male) friend I told, regardless of age, responded with what can only be called spazzy enthusiasm. One guy, a majestically ironic twenty-something magazine editor, confessed manically to me: “Yes! Yes, totally. I remember sitting in class when I was a little kid just wishing I could blast off with a jetpack and get out of there.” He gripped the side of his chair to demonstrate and shook like a hipster epileptic while making throaty blast-off noises: “Shhhhrrrrrruugghhhh!”

We were having lunch in one of those Manhattan restaurants where the wait staff consists entirely of supermodels, and by acting so publicly geeky, he was ensuring that he would never get to date one. By extension, my friend was basically telling me that he’d rather talk about jetpacks than have sex with a supermodel.

I am braced for the possibility that Jetpack Dreams will not be entirely flattering. One review quotes a description of rocket belt enthusiasts: "These are the anonymous, doughy faces of obsession." But since the book does seem to address certain aspects of the twenty first-century Zetgeist, it may prove to be popular.

The most remarkable thing about the launch (sorry, I can't help myself) of this book is that it comes with a trailer. That's right, a trailer.


Jetpack Dreams Trailer from Mac Montandon on Vimeo.

More books should have trailers, I think.

In a new article on the Scientific American site, Larry Greenemeier considers the future of rocket belts and jet belts.

I strongly recommend that you examine the accompanying slideshow. Really.

You may recall that I attended the Rocketbelt Convention last year, had a wonderful time, met old rocket belt hands and new inventors, and (twice) watched GoFast rocket belt flights.

On 11 and 12 August-- the weekend after next-- a second Rocketbelt Convention will be held in Niagara Falls, New York. It will be part of the Thunder of Niagara Air Show that weekend, at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station.

I understand there will be talks in a building on the airbase. Once again, former Bell Aerospace rocket belt pilots will be speaking. These guys were involved not only in the rocket belt, but in X-planes, Rogallo wings, VTOLs, and the Apollo program. Their stories are well worth hearing.

Even more next-generation belt builders will be on hand, along with some of their hardware. And there will again be rocket belt flights by the Jetpack International folks, sponsored by GoFast energy drink, still my favorite energy drink (though I've never tasted any).

If you like, while you're nearby, you can visit the Niagara Aerospace Museum in downtown Niagara Falls, which is mighty good.

This is your chance to see a man fly. Along with a bunch of more conventional aircraft. And to meet some peroxide-powered legends. Tell 'em I sent you. And spread the word.

I hear the Rose Bowl had a rocket belt flight the other day.

In the U.S. Wired Science debuts this week on PBS stations, Wednesday night in some markets.

The pilot episode (available online) features rocket belt experimenters they interviewed at the Rocketbelt Convention I attended in September. It's a good piece, and incorporates nice historical footage of the Bell team. More clips are available on the show's site.

If you are the sort of viewer who freeze-frames the Tivo to catch gags on The Simpsons, watch for the interview with the Irishman in the hat-- Will Breaden-Madden. I appear subliminally with Will, wearing a red shirt. (Don't blink.)

Every night of the rocket belt conference, I worked to put a selection of photos on the Web and to write a little bit about them.

Last night Make magazine asked permission to post my photos to their blog.

New Scientist has linked to my Flickr photo collection.

Yesterday I wrote a posting for sci.space.history on Usenet. The Make editor liked this enough to run it.

And Xeni Jardin at Boingboing points to one of my Livejournal entries.

There's another account of the Rocketbelt Convention by Billy Paul at Gizmag.com. It's good.

The mother lode of this stuff is Peter Gijsbert's site. Peter has also used one of my photos on his main page.

Here are a few of my photos from Day One. ( Rocketbelt Convention )

Am in Niagara Falls at the Rocketbelt Convention, a gathering of former Bell Rocket Belt pilots and engineers, new-generation RB builders, and enthusiasts. At one point I thought I was gonna be the only guy here who doesn't have an Agena engine in his garage.

I have posted some of my photos to Flickr. I'll work on captions when I get some time.

Met first pilot to fly a rocketbelt, Hal Graham. Quizzed John Spencer, test pilot for X-22 ducted-fan VTOL (which is here in the museum). Sat in rocket chair. Saw three Bell belts and a couple of others. Visited vast Bell plant, where they turned out about one P-39 fighter per hour during WWII. Stood in the pit where the X-1 and her sister rocketplanes were slung beneath B-29s. Met daughters and wife of Bell's chief photographer, Thomas Lennon. Met Hugh Neeson, former VP of Bell Aerospace, trustee of the Niagara Aerospace Museum, and walking encyclopedia on Bell history.

Saturday should be fun.

Apropos of the widespread discussion among correspondents returning from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow on its opening weekend, I just discovered this fine song. No, it's not in the movie; rather, Harry Shearer played it on his radio show.