WEBVTT - Here's Your Jetpack 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:13.800 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.040 podcast that looks at the future and says I Believe 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.960 I can fly. I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:23.560 our other host, Lauren big Obama is not with us today, 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:27.200 but she will be back next time. So today we're 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.600 gonna be answering a listener request. Wait, whoa what Hey, 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:35.400 We've got listeners and they request things. They often request things. Well, 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.279 some of the things they request are impossible to talk about, right, 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.120 but we do get we know. We we ask people 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:44.800 at the end of every single episode if you have suggestions, 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.239 send them in, and some folks do, and this is 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.000 one of them. We're going to talk about a listener request, right. 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:54.000 So this listener request is from someone calling himself or 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:59.520 herself through all right. It says, Hey, guys, I've been 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:01.440 thinking hard on what I'd like to hear as a 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.440 podcast from you guys, and finally it flew in, Like 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:08.120 Boba fat jet packs, I think it would be interesting 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.480 to hear if we ever will get to jet packs 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.080 and what they will look like, as well as the 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:17.480 jet packs. And that's in quotes the jet packs we 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.600 have now, thanks your faithful listener, the lightsaber wielding hobbit 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:25.240 ru It's a lot of mythology going on with Row. 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.440 I like it. Yeah, No, I don't like the cross pollination. 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.560 So yeah, we wanted to really take a look at this. 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.800 We figured this would be a fun one. One of 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.679 the many things we talked about. Whenever there's a discussion 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.880 about the future, someone inevitably says, where's my flying car 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.880 or where's my jet pack? Those two things I think 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.680 end up representing kind of our concept of what the 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:57.320 future should have incorporated into it more than anything else. Yeah, well, 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.400 jet packs show up in a lot of media, of course, 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:02.400 and we can talk about those in a minute, but 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.560 I wanted to start with sort of the idea of 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.160 jet packs before we get to the reality of ship packs. 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.840 When you imagine the sci fi jet pack, the thing 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.840 people are asking for when they say where's my jet pack, 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.639 where's my jet pack? Where's my jet pack? What is it? 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:23.200 It's sort of a device that makes you a hummingbird. Sure, 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:28.440 it's limitless, fully controllable personal flight, so you can zip 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.520 through the air to your destination. At rapid speeds. You 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.519 can take off and land wherever and whenever you want. 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.120 You can hover in place if you need to. You 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.359 can make a quick getaway if you need to. It's 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.240 just total personal freedom of movement, right. And beyond that, 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:47.160 it's it's as close as we would be able to 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:51.840 get to flying like a superhero as possible. Right, there's 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.680 no what we wouldn't have a vehicle around us, there's 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:59.440 no plane or car around us. It is you experiencing 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.040 that credible thrill of flying. And it's one of those 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:05.720 things that a lot of people have that desire, right, 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.000 the desire to feel as if they are flying through 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:11.640 the air. And this, I mean, that's the superpower I 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:13.440 would go with if I couldn't have my other one, 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.760 which is essentially total time control. But yeah, I would 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.600 want to fly through the airline. Well, as we've discussed before, 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:25.360 I would choose teleportation because proper teleportation can recreate the 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.519 effects of flight and many other things besides. Well, sure, 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:32.480 but see to me, it's not just the destination, it's 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:37.600 the journey. How romantic. Well, okay, we know that rockets 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:41.800 slash jets exist today. We have plenty of them. We 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:43.880 know how to make them. There are some really smart 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.080 people who are good at designing them to do very 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:50.760 specific things. And of course backpacks exist, so one plus 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.960 one should equal too. In the theory, you should be 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.640 able to combine them and it should be super easy 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.720 to create something like a jet pack. So where are they? 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:02.840 Why don't we have them? What's the hold up? So 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:05.400 the best way I thought to look into this is 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.920 to kind of lay out some rules and kind of 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.200 define some terms, because we're gonna use the word jet 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.040 pack a lot in this episode, but a lot of 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:15.760 the things we're going to be talking about are not 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:20.640 technically jets. They are rockets, and there is a difference. 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.120 I knew you'd bring some annoying technicality into this. It's 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:27.600 important because there are jet packs that are jet packs 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.560 that are jet engines strapped to a person. Let's pursue 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.080 the truth to the fullest extent. Well, what is a jet? Okay? 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:37.000 So a jet is an engine that takes an air, 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.159 uses a turbine to compress the air, and then pushes 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.360 that compressed air mixture out and mixes it with fuel 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:47.240 and then it combusts the fuel. So they require oxygen 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:49.760 to work. That oxygen comes from that air intake at 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:53.360 the beginning. So a pure jet engine would not work 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.520 in outer space because you wouldn't have the the oxidizer 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:58.880 to mix with the fuel to allow it to combust. Right, 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.239 It's sort of like I don't a sort of part rocket, 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:07.720 part vacuum cleaner all thrust. Uh So rockets carry both 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.679 the fuel and the oxidizer, the oxidizing agent together, whatever 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:13.719 that might be. Right, that's why they can burn in 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.839 deep space. They don't need external oxygen in order to 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.000 work because he's still the atmosphere of any kind, right, 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.240 you still need you still need some sort of oxidizer 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.080 in order to combust. That's one of those things that 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.640 you know, you need heat a an oxidizer in a 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.560 fuel in order for you to create any sort of 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.680 fire or burn something. But if you pack the oxidizer 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:34.320 with you, then you don't have to pull it in 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.280 from the surrounding environment. So rockets end up having that 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.039 as one of the components on them. Both of them 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:45.719 work by creating thrust. Yes, uh so there are some 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:49.479 jet packs that are actually jet packs, they are jets. 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:54.640 For example, um Eve's ROSSI. He was the guy who 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.920 had the fixed wing jet pack. Uh, he jumped out 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.800 of like a hot air balloon and flew for an 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:03.240 incredibly long time. We'll talk about him again a little 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:05.960 bit later in the episode, but his is actually a 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:08.560 wingsuit that has jet engines on it, so it is 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.040 a jet pack. I think that's super ironic because I've 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.760 seen people online referring to him as quote rocket man. Yeah, 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:20.520 apparently we can't get the nomenclature right. People wearing rocket 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:27.039 belts are wearing jet packs, and people using jets are rocketmen. Yeah, well, 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.800 you know, we're silly people, I guess. So now that 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.240 we've laid out some terminology, let's look at some instances 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.960 of jet packs and pop culture some of the things 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.320 that really promoted this idea of personal transport that allows 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.120 us to fly wherever we want. And there are a 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:46.760 lot of examples we can point to. One is one 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:51.000 that Rube mentioned, right, Yeah, now I have it in 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.080 the notes. But did you did you already know where 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.120 Boba Fett first appeared the Star Wars? I did? Are 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:02.440 you really asking me? The Star Wars Holiday special? Now? 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.640 Right now, we're in the holiday season and you might 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:08.479 not know this about me, but if you happen to 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.440 see me out somewhere, and you wish me happy holidays. 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.680 Whether you know it or not. The holiday you're referring 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.320 to is Life Day, the day celebrated by the Wookies 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.680 in the Star Wars Holiday Special. You actually watched the 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.080 Star Wars Holiday Special. I've watched it like six or 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:28.200 seven times. I've sat through all of the interminable sketches, 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.760 two hour long variety show in the worked in the 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:39.640 context of a Wookie family drama unfolding and without any subtitles. Um. 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.240 I find the Wookie Life Day quite inspiring. Anyway. In 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:48.120 an animated segment on this holiday special variety show, there 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.560 was the first appearance of Boba Fette, who was the 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:53.960 bounty hunter we all know and love now, wearing the 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:58.760 cool Mandalorian armor, sporting the weird gadget kind of weapons. 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.800 He was almost kind of like an outer space James Bond. 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:04.640 He had lots of little strange gadgets on him. Yeah. 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.640 He wrote in on a big old dinosaur like thing too, 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:11.080 So you know it's you couldn't have gone for more 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.200 dramatic entrance. Now. Of course, most people are familiar with 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:17.720 Boba Fett from the appearances in the other movies, specifically 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.160 Empire Strikes Back in Return of the Jedi, rhet coond 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:25.200 into Star Wars um and uh, then you have Django 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:29.080 Fet in the Clone Wars. But at any rate, that 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.040 jet pack was put to good use in Return of 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.120 the Jedi and bad use as well, because that was 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.960 pretty much what ended up having him get swallowed by 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:37.880 the star Lac. Yeah. They're having a big fight on 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.079 job of the Hut's barge, and I think he uses 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:42.240 it to try to jump from one ship to the 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.880 other ends up falling down in the pit. Spoiler alert 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:47.400 if you haven't seen Return of the Jedi. As I recall, 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:51.040 Han Solo is holding a long pole arm and he 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.120 hears from Chew Bacca the words Boba fet says, Boba 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.480 Fett Boa fet where and he turns and three stooges 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:01.200 like hits Boba Fett's jet pack controls, forcing him to 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.360 fly into the star like Yeah. And I think this 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.640 is interesting because surprisingly Boba Fette's jet pack depiction in 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.440 the Return of the Jedi is fairly realistic because it 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.040 only works in a short burst and it's apparently hard 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:17.160 to control. Yeah. Yeah, we'll go into more of that too. Yeah. 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:21.040 So another famous appearance of a jet pack and pop 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.520 culture is in James Bond. I loved this one when 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:26.319 I was a kid, and I still kind of love 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.040 it now because of how ridiculous and pointless it is, 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.079 Like he could have just there's a scene where Sean 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.280 Connery has just had I think a sword fight with somebody. 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:38.720 He's just killed. This is a pre credit sequence, so 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.000 it's the it's the the mission that James Bond was 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:44.840 on before, the one you're actually interested in. And he 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.199 kills the bad guy and the henchman come running and 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.880 so he makes, uh, he tries to make his escape 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:54.000 from like a giant manner, right, and he uses a 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:56.120 jet pack. You don't see him putting it on. He 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.360 just kind of suddenly has it on. You see him 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.400 put on the helmet, but not the jet pack, which 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.880 clearly would take several minutes of coordination to get it 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:09.280 on properly, right, And so he's trying to get off 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.720 the roof of a mansion. I always felt like, wouldn't 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:13.840 a rope work just as well? Just kind of have 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.400 a rope, But he flies out over the mansion and 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:19.679 then lands in the street. Next to his Aston Martin 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.000 and then makes us get away, conveniently stowing the jet 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.480 pack into the trunk of the Aston Martin. First. Uh 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.080 so that was pretty exciting. And then of course there's 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:34.920 The Rocketeer. I never saw it. It's actually a very underrated, fun, 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.760 pulpy kind of movie. The Rocketeer is based off a 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:39.959 comic book series that came out in the nineteen eighties 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.360 that was meant as a tribute to the old science 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.040 fiction serials of the thirties and forties, So it was 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.840 The Rocketeer itself doesn't date all the way back there, 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.480 that is, when it's set. It's set in the thirties, 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:55.880 but the actual comic book came out in the eighties, 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:59.800 and then the movie came out in the nineties, and um, 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.840 again has a superhero who uses a rocket pack too 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:07.760 fly around. Although this rocket pack is phenomenal because it 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:13.440 apparently has a nearly infinite supply of fuel. So those 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:15.200 are the kind of the pop culture ones that I 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.440 think about. I mean, they're obviously there are other ones 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:18.960 as well, but those are the big ones that jump 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:23.199 out at me. So we've seen all of this, we 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.840 know people have thought about it. What are some of 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.600 the reasons why jet packs aren't just all over the place, 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.000 and one of the big ones is that, well, it's 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.280 just because the way people are. We're not aerodynamic. Yeah, 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.679 we don't have wings. Yeah, we don't generate lift, and 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:47.160 we're pretty dense. Yes, all of us, even the lighter side, 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:51.120 are pretty dense relatively. Yeah, And uh so in order 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.040 for us to fly, we have to be we have 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.360 to use something that's going to generate enough lift to 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.319 counteract the weight that we have. Right, we have to 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:04.240 be able to generate more upward thrust than we have weight. 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.040 But there's a problem here because it doesn't just have 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.600 to counteract your weight and the Earth's gravity tugging down 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.800 on you. It has to counteract its own weight on 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.720 top of your weight exactly. So whatever jet pack, like, 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:22.520 if I weigh, you know, eighty pounds and I've got 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:24.960 a jet pack on that has a hundred eighty pounds thrust, 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:29.520 well does that if that is the total weight it has, 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:31.719 I'm not gonna be getting off the ground because it's 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:35.200 the jet pack is not it's going to be it's 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:36.560 you know, that weight, it's going to add to it. 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.079 And plus then you have the fuel. Right, the fuel 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.640 is going to add weight, and in fact, the longer 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:43.720 you want to fly, the more fuel you have to carry. 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.080 But the more fuel you carry, the heavier your jet 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.520 pack is, and that's it places more limitations. This is 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:51.200 the same sort of issue we run into when we 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:55.720 talk about space, the idea that the weight of stuff 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.320 that we're trying to send up into space matters because 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.880 that requires more fuel, and the more fuel you add, 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:05.800 the more weight you have to the overall space delivery package. 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.360 These are big issues. Also depending on the type of fuel, um, 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.240 it could be fairly dangerous. Not all rocket fuels, uh 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:17.000 you know friendly stuff. Well, I mean, we we have 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:21.360 seen tragic cases where rockets explode um. And it depends 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.520 on what kind of fuel you use. Like you said, 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:26.200 I mean, there's some fuels that are much safer than others. 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.000 And I think typically when you're designing a jet pack, 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.360 you're going to try to tend towards the safest kind 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:34.960 of fuel you can use. But this puts limitations on 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.400 your design, right. And if you're looking at a lot 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.520 of the jet packs that have come out, specifically the 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:44.559 ones that follow one particular design, the limits on flight 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.080 times are pretty pretty rough. I mean we're talking like 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.440 thirty seconds of flight, and and a lot of the 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:54.320 things I read talked about how you need to have 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.720 about ten seconds of that to determine how to land safely. 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:00.920 So really you've got twenty seconds of lying time followed 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.160 by ten seconds of Oh, I need to find a 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.240 place to set down, so I don't know injure myself, 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.920 um at any rate, those are some of the problems. 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:13.920 And other one is just that jet packs are not quiet. Nope, 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.960 and that's you know, it's one thing if you are 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.600 a person demonstrating a technology and you've got a big 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.360 group of people around watching you flight through the air. 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:27.880 It's another if you want to suggest this as an 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:32.160 actual mass produced means of travel travel, Right, if you're 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.640 imagining this city of the future where everybody walks out 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:38.120 the front door in the morning, puts on a backpack, 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.960 and then jets off to work, this is going to 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:46.160 be an incredibly noisy city. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, these 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:51.480 are rockets or jets. They are not quiet devices. And uh, 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:56.040 if you watch the footage of these old like tests 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:58.400 of jet packs, various jet packs, you see a lot 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.720 of people putting their fingers in their because it was 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.920 it was loud, and uh, you know, you just imagine 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:05.960 a city full of people doing that. First of all, 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:10.080 the skies would just be roaring constantly, which would be 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.240 kind of tedious. I would think there would have to 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.640 be some kind of citywide service also that you call 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:20.120 up every time a jet pack flyer crashes on your lawn. 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.760 Do you get them to come collect the corps or 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.120 what do you do? I think you have your corps 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:27.880 pushing robots, just push them out to the curb. Right, 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:30.960 and we're talking about the amazing future. Everyone's going to 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.160 have a corpse pushing robot. I can buy that. Okay, 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:38.200 it was a little little dark, but hey, it's the holidays. 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.640 That's kind of the mindset we're into. Okay, I've got 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:46.520 another big question about this. Though everybody says they want one, Yeah, 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.840 but is anybody actually gonna pay what it would cost 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:54.120 to make these? I think there there's going to always 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:58.280 be a very small market for these. But that's the thing. 0:15:58.280 --> 0:15:59.760 It's going to be a small market. I don't think 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.320 it's ever going to get to a point where it's 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:06.120 going to require mass production, which means that costs are 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.720 never going to come down, So the price tag of 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:10.240 these things is going to be very high, so the 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:12.000 people who can afford them are going to be few 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.800 in number. Right, it seems like people are imagining jet 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:19.600 packs as a kind of transportation alternative. Instead of taking 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:22.400 the subway or your car, you take a jet pack. 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.840 What seems more likely to me is that even as 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:29.200 jet packs become more viable at the consumer level, they're 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:34.400 still still going to be basically a very expensive recreational device. 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.960 You can only use transportation alternative, right, because you know 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:42.040 you can't. You know, we have such hard limitations on 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:44.080 how much fuel you can carry, how far you can 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:48.680 travel that uh with only a couple of exceptions of 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.480 some proposals that would allow you to travel further but 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:56.280 would be restrictive in other ways. It just wouldn't be practical. 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:01.239 So without those practical uses, there's not the funding necessary 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.280 to go into research development. Beyond that, there's not enough 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:09.400 interest to create a uh an industry around it. So yeah, 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.119 you've got the I will constantly have people say wouldn't 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:14.879 jet packs be cool? And yeah, but cool isn't a 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:18.120 good enough and reason to to actually make them. It's 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.200 kind of like lightsaber is actually which we talked about recently. 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:24.160 It seems really cool, but then can you really think 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.800 of anything a lightsaber can do that you can't do 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.080 with something else that's easier to make? Right now, that 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:33.080 hasn't stopped us from actually making working jet packs, which 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.720 is different from lightsabers. If you remember our lightsaber episode, 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.800 we essentially said we can't figure out how this would 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:43.480 ever become a real thing, and then on top of that, 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.240 we couldn't think of a practical application for it, apart 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:48.880 from Lauren's suggestion that it would allow us to both 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.920 slice and toast bagels at the same time. Um So 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:57.320 jet packs. However, we've actually got several examples of those 0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.919 being made, and some of them are just you know, 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.720 concepts or whatever that were floated out there, no pun intended. 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.560 But I just had a collection of some of the 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:08.640 fun ones that I thought I talked about, and one 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.439 that is not so so fun, but it's so crazy 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.640 that I had to include it. Did you read all 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.840 of these yet, Joe? Are you talking about the kidnapping? Yeah? 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:22.440 You read that one? Yeah? Okay, back up to alright, 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:27.200 August night. That's when Frank R. Paul illustrated the cover 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:31.080 of Amazing Stories, and it shows a guy wearing a 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:33.440 jet pack. He's flying over a lady's waving to the 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:37.320 lady las wig Hi, mr jet pack man, Uh and uh. 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.840 It's one of those early depictions, like one of the 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:44.000 earliest ones that I've seen of this idea of of 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:47.199 a jet pack that would allow people to travel on 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.240 their own. As you were saying, Joe in nineteen five, 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.359 this is the sort of legendary thing you have. The 0:18:54.480 --> 0:19:00.280 himmel Schummer. The himmel Stummer was the sky stormer hack 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:04.040 that was supposedly developed by the Nazis during World War Two, 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.159 and it was supposed to be two pulse jet tubes 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.520 based off of the rocketry that the Nazis were working 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.960 on at the time, one mounted to the back of 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.840 a soldier that would allow for thrust, and one that 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:20.760 would be on the front of the soldier so that 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:24.120 would be used for steering um and this was meant 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.919 to allow soldiers to jump over obstacles. This sounds like 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.040 one of those stories. I mean, is there any evidence 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.040 that this actually existed? There was, there was at least 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.200 some There are people out there who would who would 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.639 at least no definitively if elements of this story are true, 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.480 because there are no photographs that have have survived. Assuming 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:47.879 this thing really did exist, there are no examples of 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:53.960 the thing that I know of. Supposedly Bell got hold 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:59.080 of the company Bell. Yeah, Bell Aerospace Labs. They they 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:06.000 got whole of one of these. Um supposedly, but again, 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.959 unless someone there knows definitively whether that happened or not, 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.320 it's kind of in the realm of legend. There are illustrations, 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:18.640 but the illustrations are illustrations, they're not photographs. So, however, 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:21.760 it could be said that the idea had been proposed, 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:25.600 whether it was ever actually built in any sort of prototype, 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:29.480 I don't know. Then you have the Hiller vs. One. 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:31.280 Did you see a picture of one of these? I 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:34.640 didn't just imagine like a little round platform. It's got 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:37.360 a railing that goes all the way around. Wait a second, yes, 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:41.680 I did see this. The the flying platform. Yeah, it's 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:45.040 a flying platform. It's actually a ducted fan, so it's 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:47.720 aducted fans, got a propeller inside it that rotates. That's 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.480 what generates the thrust. It's like as if you could 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:53.159 stand at the top of a guard tower, but that 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:56.000 guard tower could raise itself up into the sky and 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:59.359 come back down it will. Yeah and uh. It was 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:03.240 built in an nineteen fifties, early nineteen fifties, and again 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:05.760 not an actual jet pack, more of a flying platform 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:08.920 and you would steer it by shifting your weight. In fact, 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:13.200 I watched a film of this so well video on YouTube, 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:15.760 but it was converted from a film where you see 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:18.760 the guy like kind of herky jerky making this thing 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:22.920 move to specific locations. UM. And it was a five 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:27.400 foot fiberglass round wing that was the ducted fan part 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.359 that you stood on top of. UM and had twin 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:35.040 counter rotating coaxial propellers inside this ducted fan, so the 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.960 fan part would be under your feet and generating the 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.080 thrust that would allow you to go up into the air. 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:44.000 But it was somewhat limited. It was never never received 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:46.119 full funding, so it never went into any kind of production. 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:48.120 I think they built six of them, and at least 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:50.240 one of them is on display in a museum right now. 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:54.040 You control it by shifting your weight. Yeah, So it's 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:59.560 like the segue of flying vehicles. Yeah, yeah, I mean 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:02.120 it's lean forward and that's where you're gonna go lean 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:06.280 forward too far and bad news. Then you have the 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:10.720 theicle jump belts. This was also developed in the nineteen fifties. Now, 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.480 these weren't really jet packs. They were meant kind of 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:18.160 like the the Himmel Stemmer uh, the ones. They were 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:20.960 meant to help help a soldier like leap over something. Yeah, 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.600 a run really fast for a short time. Uh. And 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.720 the company had developed solid fuel rockets, including rockets that 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:31.320 we would use in an early space program projects like 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:33.720 Jim and Jim and I and Mercury. Almost a gimin e. 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:36.480