I’M KITTED OUT in aluminum trousers, fireproof layers, and heavy boots. No, I’m not about to fight a fire in Southern California’s hills. Rather, I’m about to fly a jet pack, and its owner is keen I don’t fry myself with the 1,000-degree engine blast. Earplugs in, helmet on, jets alight—I’m ready for liftoff. Rising on columns of thrust is literally the stuff of dreams, except this can hurt badly if it all goes wrong.
Any altitude up to 10,000 feet, at which you would need oxygen, is theoretically attainable. Teaching me how to control the machine supplying all this heat, noise, and potential disaster is David Mayman, one of its inventors. His JetPack Aviation’s latest design ($340,000, jetpackaviation.com ) uses six small jet engines (the version I tried had…
