Jetpack Dreams : One Man's up and down (but Mostly down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was

by Montandon, Mac

• ISBN13: 9780306815287
• ISBN10: 0306815281
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-27
• Publisher: Da Capo Pr

Summary

Jetpack Dreamschronicles the colorful pop history and science of that most amazing and mysterious of machines, the jetpack. While exploring our collective fascination with flight, the tale takes readers from the first flimsy, shoulder-mounted wings to Bill Suitorrs"s 1984 Olympic flight in front of billions of viewers around the world; from a gruesome jetpack-driven murder in Houston in the mid-1990s to the secret laboratories and government facilities of today. Journalist Mac Montandon also explores Hollywoodrs"s fascination with the subject, from the 1949 serialKing of the Rocket MentoLost in Space,The JetsonsandThe Rocketeerto the cultural jetpack phenomenon represented by Buck Rogers, James Bond, and Boba Fett. He travels the world to meet jetpack enthusiasts who are readying their own personal flying machines for takeoff. Ultimately, itrs"s the search for an answer to two simple questions: Where is the jetpack that was promised to him, and to all of us, years ago? And if itrs"s out there, can he catch a ride?

Author Biography

Mac Montandon is the editor of Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader. He has written for the New York Times, Radar, Salon, and Interview, among many others. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Table of Contents

The Voluptuous Panic, Part I	p. 1
The Past Is Prologue?	p. 15
Shuffling Off to Buffalo; or, The Cruel Truth about Lift over Drag	p. 65
Out of This World	p. 107
South of the Border, North of the Future	p. 151
Houston, We Have Another Problem	p. 185
The Voluptuous Panic, Part II	p. 209
Epilogue	p. 237
Acknowledgments	p. 249
Index	p. 251
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.