The Great American Jet Pack The Quest for the Ultimate Individual Lift Device

by Lehto, Steve

• ISBN13: 9781613744307
• ISBN10: 1613744307
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-05-01
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Summary

Man's dream of flying solo. Tracing the remarkable history of a certain kind of flying machinefrom the rocket belt to the jet belt to the flying platform and all the way to Yves Rossy's 21st-century free flights using a jet-powered wingthis historical account delves into the technology that made these devices possible and the reasons why they never became commercial successes on a mass scale. These individual lift devices, as they were blandly labelled by the government men who financed much of their development, answered man's desire to simply step outside and take flight. No runways, no wings, no pilot's license were required. But the history of the jet pack did not follow its expected trajectory and the devices that were thought to become as commonplace as cars have instead become one of the most over promised technologies of all time. This fascinating account profiles the inventors and pilots, the hucksters and cheats, and the businessmen and soldiers who were involved with the machines, and it tells a great American story of a technology whose promise may yet, one day, come to fruition.

Author Biography

Steve Lehto is the author of Death’s Door: The Truth Behind Michigan’s Largest Mass Murder, a 2007 Michigan Notable Book; Chrysler's Turbine Car; and Michigan’s Columbus: The Life of Douglass Houghton. He lives in Boca Raton, Florida.