If your Bentley isn’t fast enough but the Gulfstream's in the workshop having a new spa fitted, strap on a Martin Aircraft jetpack to get from A to B in style.
Due to go on sale by mid-2017, around A$250,000 will buy cashed-up flyboys and flygirls their very own personal jetpack.
(Expect to pay more for fully-comprehensive insurance if you land through somebody’s roof from an altitude of up to 3,000 feet.)
You can also fly by your local service station and fill up with regular unleaded petrol, with a full tank of gas lasting roughly 30 minutes including take-off and landing and getting you as far as 30km down the road at speeds of up to 74km/h.
“There are a lot of rich people in China and many are keen to own their own jetpack,” Chairman Ruopeng Liu of Kuang-Chi, the investment company behind Martin Aircraft, told The Australian.
“Not because it replaces their car, but because a jetpack is a jetpack.”
With a 45-litre tank, that 30-minute flight costs just A$54 based on today’s petrol prices of $1.199 per litre, which makes owning your own jetpack quite affordable after the quarter-million outlay.
For more information, head to the Martin Aircraft website.
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Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
NZ Elite
03 Jul 2014
Total posts 110
And fittingly the company is situated right next to the old Royal New Zealand Air Force Base at Wigram.
12 Jun 2013
Total posts 732
This is only the gazillionth company to promise a jetpack and/or flying car in the next few years. I am sure it will totally pan out this time.
In fairness, this runs off an internal combustion engine so it appears to be more of an ultralight helicopter than a jetpack. That solves a lot of the problems with an actual jetpack. It's more like one of those remote-control quadcopters.
The mean flying time before (horrible fatal) failure is probably still pretty low though. Just like those remote-control quadcopters except you're strapped to the front of it and one hundred feet off the ground.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
20 Mar 2014
Total posts 131
i really hope nothing like this ever becoms mainstream! it will become so noisy and windy on the ground!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 Jan 2013
Total posts 698
Yes, but where do you hang your shopping after nipping down to the local Coles or Woolies? Lol
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2432
If you've paid that much for a jetpack, I'm sure your valet will happily oblige!
QFF
12 Apr 2013
Total posts 1564
Nah - own heli is better!
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