# "Guy in a jetpack" reported at LAX **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 1, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559 "2020-09-01T22:58:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GrassFox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b19c9b/32.png) [@GrassFox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrassFox)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/21 "2020-09-02T14:53:21Z")
Back in the 90’s while at an air show, there was a company that made this one man flying machine you pretty much strapped on. It had two counter rotating props over your head, and it had a seat you straddled with little legs to support you. It was the size of a jet pack and had similar controls. The guy did a demo flight and went up at least one thousand feet. It looked pretty cool, but too scary for me. No clue what happened if the motor died, but it did have three tiny gas motors , so maybe it had some redundancy? The company wanted $60k to buy one. Later that year the company was no longer around. I never saw another device like it since. Never heard of a jetpack that could go 3,000 feet, since most only carried enough fuel for less than two minutes of flight. That would limit you to a couple hundred feet before you had to land. I don’t think these pilots saw what they think they saw. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/22 "2020-09-02T15:20:02Z")
> [@GrassFox](#): > > Never heard of a jetpack that could go 3,000 feet, since most only carried enough fuel for less than two minutes of flight. That would limit you to a couple hundred feet before you had to land. I don’t think these pilots saw what they think they saw. The ones @Snowboarder_Bo linked to claim anywhere from 3-15,000 ft and 8-10 minutes of flight. Only one had any actual flight data and that was only 10 min of flight and a horizontal distance of 1.4 miles. No altitude given ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/23 "2020-09-02T15:20:25Z")
Franky Zapata flew across the English Channel on a Flyboard Air in 2019, stopping half way to refuel. It’s claimed that the Flyboard Air can reach an altitude of 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) and has a top speed of 160 km/h (100 mph). It can fly for about 10 min before needing to refuel. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/FoW-19mdy4g/maxresdefault.jpg "Flying Frenchman crosses English Channel by hoverboard") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoW-19mdy4g) ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/24 "2020-09-02T16:02:20Z")
Another video of Franky Zapata [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YYJCn10wo84/maxresdefault.jpg "Flyboard Air | The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYJCn10wo84) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/25 "2020-09-02T16:13:42Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > (ETA: shouldn’t that be him/her?) Not an outlandidh presumption. I mean, which of the major traditional genders has the greater record for risking death by misadventure (with possible huge collateral damage)? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/26 "2020-09-02T16:20:00Z")
🤨 “it” is not a gender ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/27 "2020-09-02T16:24:15Z")
“I swear your honor, my eyes saw 'he”" 🤦🏻‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/28 "2020-09-02T16:25:08Z")
🤪 ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/29 "2020-09-04T10:47:30Z")
How do they steer? How do they control their pitch, yaw, and roll? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/30 "2020-09-04T11:41:24Z")
For the hoverboard-style device, pitch and roll control isn’t hard to imagine. Think of how you balance a broomstick on your palm. If it starts to fall forward, you scoot your palm forward to stay under it and keep it vertical. So now imagine a pilot on a hoverboard. He starts to fall forward, so to keep his feet under him, he tips his toes down, angling the hoverboard forward and thrusting his feet back under him. You can initiate a pitch maneuver in similar fashion, e.g. to lean forward, pick up your toes to thrust your feet toward the rear. Once you’re leaned forward, lower your toes again to begin accelerating forward. Roll control is analogous to this. There are four engines, so in theory you could achieve this control by setting different thrust levels on each engine to move the aggregated center of lift, but with the engines so close to each other, the range of pitch/roll moment (and therefore control authority) would not be very large Confirmed by this video, cued to 45 seconds. They note that this sort of pilot control is augmented by a computer-based stabilization system. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/VAit7ZtetrA/hqdefault.jpg "Zapata Flyboard Air - World's First Jet Hoverboard") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAit7ZtetrA) Yaw control is less obvious. The video mentions “two side-mounted engines to prevent spinning;” I can only imagine these are throttled up or down based on pilot inputs to control yaw. One key challenge is that once you’re leaned away from vertical, the engines’ thrust is no longer directed 100% downward to counteract the effect of gravity, so you’ll need to add thrust to stave off descent (and decrease thrust again after you come back to vertical to stave off ascent). Helicopter pilots are familiar with this issue. The later part of the video mentions many hours of practice that are required on a water-based hoverboard to develop your piloting skills before graduating to this airborne model. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/31 "2020-10-15T03:36:27Z")
Jetpack guy was spotted again today over Los Angeles, this time at 6,000 feet. > **[A man flying in a jetpack has been spotted again in the skies over Los Angeles...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/14/us/jetpack-guy-back-lax-trnd/index.html)** > > An unidentified man was seen flying in a jetpack near the Los Angeles International Airport ... again. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/32 "2020-10-15T05:12:28Z")
Holy crap; that’s way up there! ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/33 "2020-10-15T05:40:00Z")
I’ll bet it’s an RC model of some kind. I doubt a real jet pack could get to 6000 feet without spending all its fuel. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/34 "2020-10-15T07:11:02Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I doubt a real jet pack could get to 6000 feet without spending all its fuel. See post 23 above: > [@"Guy in a jetpack" reported at LAX](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/23): > > Franky Zapata flew across the English Channel on a Flyboard Air in 2019, stopping half way to refuel. It’s claimed that the Flyboard Air can reach an altitude of 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) and has a top speed of 160 km/h (100 mph). It can fly for about 10 min before needing to refuel. [[Flying Frenchman crosses English Channel by hoverboard] ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoW-19mdy4g) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/35 "2020-10-15T08:16:32Z")
How does one stop to refuel halfway across the English Channel? Was there a tender ship sailing along with him? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/36 "2020-10-15T08:31:29Z")
There were some boats and helicopters around, and one of the boats had a refuelling platform. On his first attempt, he fell in the water when landing to refuel. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/37 "2020-10-15T08:33:39Z")
So he’s got a jetpack that runs on salt water? I guess that makes sense. All those electrolytes. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/38 "2020-10-16T15:04:32Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I’ll bet it’s an RC model of some kind. I doubt a real jet pack could get to 6000 feet without spending all its fuel. Either way, this can end quite badly unless whoever’s responsible is taken care of soon. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2020, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/39 "2020-10-17T00:06:04Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Either way, this can end quite badly unless whoever’s responsible is taken care of soon. Turned out badly in the [Gatwick Airport drone incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatwick_Airport_drone_incident) … where it eventually turned out that /most/ of the airport drone sightings were of police drones searching for suspects 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559/40 "2020-10-19T18:50:53Z")
This video purports to depict a jetpack flight up to 1800 meters (the high-altitude part starts at 2:30). The pilot uses a parachute to land. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nj-Iwv5NJKg/maxresdefault.jpg "Jetman Dubai Takeoff - 4K") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj-Iwv5NJKg) But, even assuming that the LAX “guy in a jetpack” has access to something like this, using it near one of the busiest airports in the world would be insane. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-in-a-jetpack-reported-at-lax/919559.md?page=3)