Jet pack spotted at 6000 feet over LAX

[Secan]

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/14/us/jetpack-guy-back-lax-trnd/index.html

What kind of jetpack is used here? I wonder when they will be available at amazon.

 

[berkeman]

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/14/us/jetpack-guy-back-lax-trnd/index.html

What kind of jetpack is used here? I wonder when they will be available at amazon.

Probably this guy or one of his buddies: https://www.engadget.com/2020-02-19-watch-jetpack-pilot-vince-reffet-new-altitude-record-dubai.html

And yes, they are available on Amazon now, but you need to be a Prime member to see the item. Watch jetpack pilot Vince Reffet set a new altitude record in Dubai
The jetman hit 6,000 feet from a standing start.

 

[Secan]

Probably this guy or one of his buddies: https://www.engadget.com/2020-02-19-watch-jetpack-pilot-vince-reffet-new-altitude-record-dubai.html

And yes, they are available on Amazon now, but you need to be a Prime member to see the item. Watch jetpack pilot Vince Reffet set a new altitude record in Dubai
The jetman hit 6,000 feet from a standing start.

View attachment 270989

Ah it's big. I just watched the movie Rocketeer because intrigued by it.

 

[hutchphd]

Fantastic video OMG I must be living in the future.
The last time I had this feeling was ~1978 pulling my car into Dulles Airport as the Concorde was making its landing approach in front of me. Hooray for us, I hope we make it..

 

[Astronuc]

Probably this guy or one of his buddies: https://www.engadget.com/2020-02-19-watch-jetpack-pilot-vince-reffet-new-altitude-record-dubai.html

I doubt that it is Reffet, but perhaps someone from Ca who bought a jetpack.

Yves Rossy and Vince Reffet flying over Dubai.


A carefully choreographed aerial showcase, conducted over the Palm Jumeirah and Dubai skyline, involving the world’s largest passenger aircraft and the experienced Jetman Dubai pilots Yves Rossy and Vince Reffet. Over the three months in 2015, Emirates and the Jetman Dubai teams worked closely to diligently plan and coordinate every detail of this project.

The person near LAX is probably violating a host of FAA regulations.

 

[nsaspook]

RC Iron Man?

 

[Borg]

Probably this guy or one of his buddies: https://www.engadget.com/2020-02-19-watch-jetpack-pilot-vince-reffet-new-altitude-record-dubai.html

And yes, they are available on Amazon now, but you need to be a Prime member to see the item.

 

[Borek]

Similar ones are used in RC models.

http://www.barnardmicrosystems.com/UAV/engines/turbine.html

(but that's just an example, there are others)

 

[Secan]

Similar ones are used in RC models.

http://www.barnardmicrosystems.com/UAV/engines/turbine.html

(but that's just an example, there are others)

By RC did you mean drones or RC toys like RC helicopters or planes?

I think this can be used on a motorcycle. Imagine you are in hurry and its traffic so you flick a switch and the wings sprout out and the turbines engaged and you are up and away. I wonder why the Batcycle doesn't have these capabilities.

 

[berkeman]

I think this can be used on a motorcycle. Imagine you are in hurry and its traffic so you flick a switch and the wings sprout out and the turbines engaged and you are up and away. I wonder why the Batcycle doesn't have these capabilities.

Settle down there cougar...

There's a reason that these test flights were conducted in Dubai, right? To incorporate low-flying people/aircraft/cars in the US (or EU) traffic pattern, it will take significant work by the FAA and NHTSA and other agencies. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, just that it will take some work (and incorporating the flight plans and controls into the flying vehicle controls systems themselves) before it can happen for real.

On the upside, look at what the FCC has been doing to qualify more drone flights -- that could serve as a model for personal flight going forward...

 

[Secan]

Settle down there cougar...

There's a reason that these test flights were conducted in Dubai, right? To incorporate low-flying people/aircraft/cars in the US (or EU) traffic pattern, it will take significant work by the FAA and NHTSA and other agencies. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, just that it will take some work (and incorporating the flight plans and controls into the flying vehicle controls systems themselves) before it can happen for real.

On the upside, look at what the FCC has been doing to qualify more drone flights -- that could serve as a model for personal flight going forward...

They chose Dubai maybe so there are more desert to crash land?

Anyway. Turbojets in commercial airplane are stable. They don't burst into flame. So I guess the same materials for the jetpack engines were used? What material is that? Titanium? And where did they store the fuel? Anyone can give schematics of their Jet pack?

 

[Secan]

By the way. They are similar to that used by the Centurions. I imagine one flying up to skyscraper (or white house balcony) armed with a grenade launcher so they can be for tactical weapons application.

 

[Borek]

By RC did you mean drones or RC toys like RC helicopters or planes?

Yes, Radio Controlled.

Something like these (random video):

 

[Secan]

Yes, Radio Controlled.

Something like these (random video):

I didnt know there were big RC toys. I was thinking a few months ago of getting a toy helicoptor or drone to pick up my groceries in these times of covid.

Do these big RC toys need jet fuel? Oh is the Jetman centurion pack in Dubao powered by batteries or aviation fuel?

 

[Secan]

Here some claim they can't be the Jetman packs sighted in LA. The plot thickens.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1243660

This jetpack maker isn't so sure that's what's been spotted over the L.A. skies
“There are only a handful of companies working on this type of technology and none of us have heard about anybody doing something like this,” he said.

Federal authorities are investigating the sightings, but David Mayman, chief executive of the Los Angeles-based Jetpack Aviation, said Thursday that he doesn’t believe what the pilots and crew members are seeing are indeed jetpacks.

“There are only a handful of companies working on this type of technology, and none of us have heard about anybody doing something like this,” he said.

“The question is,” he added, “why the heck would you go fly around LAX? You need to have your head read. That’s a catastrophic accident waiting to happen.”

Mayman’s company, which was established in 2016, has produced five jetpacks, he said, noting that all of them are under "lock and key." Only two people have those keys — Mayman and his chief engineer — and none of the packs have been sold, he said."

For liability reasons, he said the company instead offers two-day sessions where — for $4,950 — trainees can travel to the company’s San Fernando Valley-based facility and learn to fly with the jetpacks.

Mayman said it was extremely unlikely that the company’s latest machines could reach the heights described by the airline crew and pilots while also safely descending.

The August sighting was at 3,000 feet; Wednesday's was at 6,000 feet.

It would take one of the company’s turbine-powered jetpacks as long as seven minutes to reach 6,000 feet, Mayman said. The company’s latest model holds 12 gallons of fuel — or about 10 minutes’ worth.“To climb and descend — it takes some time to do that,” he said. To fly around and be seen by an airplane — that takes even more time. “You’d just be out of fuel,” he said.

When the jetpack descends, it does so under a large parachute. And no one has perfected a recovery system, as the canopies are known, to be used so high.

“Without a recovery system it would be super scary,” he said. “We would not do it.”

Finally, Mayman said the jet engines that power the systems are extremely loud — a fact that likely would have prompted videos and photos, especially because the first sighting was made in a heavily populated area south of downtown Los Angeles, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the sightings."

Maybe the pilots saw something like these which many residences in LA are seeing?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Maybe the pilots saw something like these which many residences in LA are seeing?

Can you please stop with the UFO nutjobbery on every single thread? This was five years ago and has nothing to do with the thread topic.

 

[Secan]

Can you please stop with the UFO nutjobbery on every single thread? This was five years ago and has nothing to do with the thread topic.

It is. Because it's unidentified. Could be balloon or electric drones with mannequin attached according to the article below. The above picture could be drones with mannequin too. The pilot reported it as "Like a Jetpack. Too Shiny. Too Fast".

https://www.latimes.com/california/...omeone-really-flying-around-lax-in-a-jet-pack"The FBI is on the case, as is a good chunk of L.A.’s aviation community, which has been buzzing about the sightings. ""It’s possible that Wednesday’s sighting near LAX was indeed a person flying with a jet pack. But the reported altitude makes such a flight seem “highly unlikely,” said Mike Hirschberg, executive director of the Vertical Flight Society, a nonprofit professional organization.

Mayman said his company’s jet packs are technically capable of soaring to heights of 15,000 feet. But because of fuel constraints, they can actually reach only about 1,000 or 1,500 feet off the ground safely.

“To fly up to 6,000 feet from the ground, to fly around long enough to be seen by China Airlines and then to descend again, you’d be out of fuel,” he said."

Mayman said he knows it wasn’t any of his company’s jet packs because he knows exactly where they are — plus, they are disabled when not in use, so grabbing a pack out of storage wouldn’t be possible.

Instead, he suggests a more likely scenario, an electric drone — perhaps with a mannequin attached."

How do you attach mannequin to a drone? anyone share how? sometimes I'm thinking of pulling a prank on Halloween on my neighborhood. Drone carrying a bogeyman and expecting to hear screams in the streets. Lol.

"After the China Airlines pilot‘s report Wednesday, the LAX control tower called in a law enforcement aircraft to investigate.

The aircraft was flying about seven miles from where the pilot said he’d seen the jetpack, according to radio communications.

But when the craft arrived, no signs of the jet pack remained.".

How long would it take for the law enforcement aircraft to travel seven miles to the location of the jet pack?

Such stunt is indeed dangerous near airports.

"Airliners are designed to withstand getting hit by small objects. But a big metal object is another matter, especially if it were sucked into an engine.

“The engines aren’t designed to consume something large and metal, or something with fuel that’s going to burn or explode,” Hirschberg said. “That could be potentially catastrophic for an airplane. You could potentially have an engine explode and bring down the airliner and potentially hundreds of people could die.”"Others, though, are more skeptical. Hirschberg said the apparatus seen near LAX could have been a balloon, particularly because the China Airlines pilot noted that the flying object was shiny.".

Does jet pack look shiny? Is a balloon shiny and can move fast? Is it drone with mannequin? It's truly unidentified flying object in the most plain meaning which means flying object that is unidentified. What is it most likely? Note the Jetman jetpack in Dubai can only travel 3 minutes, and it can't land that's why need to use parachute. If the objected sighted in LA is indeed a jetpack. It's very advanced able to pull this stunt. Maybe it's the Rocketeer?

 

[PeterDonis]

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