National Business Review, 31 July, 2009
HOW GLENN MARTIN PLANS TO MAKE MONEY OUT OF JETPACKING
Strapping on a jetpack to get to work on a Monday morning is still the stuff of cheesy science-fiction stories, but the Christchurch inventor of the latest jetpack technology is planning to open a business providing flights to the public as early as next year, with further plans to take the jetpack around the world.
Glenn Martin first flew into the headlines at the Oshkosh airshow in Wisconsin last year, but with backing from venture capitalist Jenny Morel and her No 8 Ventures company, he is hoping to offer flights to anybody willing to give it a go early in 2010.
His company, Martin Aircraft, has spent the past year making the technology simpler and easier to fly, and chief executive Richard Lauder told NBR a lot of work also went into making sure any users didn’t end up disappearing off over Christchurch’s Port Hills.
“We’ve been focused on keeping the jetpack for public use slow and low, so we now have an onboard computer preventing users from flying too high or too fast, while keeping inside the designated area.
“We’re still finalising some of the technical details, but we’re about
three-quarters of the way there. It’s a pretty complex task dealing with something flying in a three-dimensional space, so we won’t launch until we have absolute confidence.”
Mr Lauder said the company had received requests from hundreds of people from around the world wanting to try out the jetpack for themselves, and the company had plans for a global operation.
“AJ Hackett started off with one operation and is now spread out all over the world. So we’re committed to developing the concept here in Canterbury and continue with ongoing technical and market development here before we franchise it globally.”
Mr Martin has been tinkering with the idea for more than 30 years, and after five years of support from No 8 Ventures, he was looking forward to seeing the idea return some of that investment.
Mr Martin has returned to this year’s Oshkosh to provide seminars on progress and announce the public flights.
He said that flying solo in a fixed wing aircraft can take 15 hours of flight training, but most people that approached him wanted to be able to learn to fly the jetpack in a few minutes.
“So I realised that we needed to make this one hundred times easier to fly to match people’s expectations. I went back to New Zealand and sat down with the design team. We decided if we can make the world’s first practical jetpack, then we can make the easiest to fly aircraft in the world as well.”
The control and training system was rebuilt from the ground up, and a wide range of people were brought in to try it out, ranging from military-qualified pilots to complete novices.
Mr Lauder said that while the company was now perfecting the low and slow model for public use, it was still targeting higher and faster models, with possible application in areas like search and rescue and border control.
“Even though hundreds of people have been keen to take a flight, we’ve had a lot more commercial interest than recreational.”
He added that the appeal of strapping on the jetpack was lost on some, there were still plenty keen to give it a go.
“Around about half the population seem to wonder why the hell you’d ever want to do something like that, while the other half are incredibly keen to go for it.”