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Rocket Man

Posted Dec 30th, 2006

I saw a t-shirt not long ago that said, “It’s the future, where’s my jetpack?” Jetpacks, of course, were a staple of 60s and 70s era TV shows and movies–”Lost in Space” and James Bond, and many others. That guy in the silver suit and the helmet would just be cruising around, hands on a couple of grip controllers, a couple of pipes sticking out improbably from some kind of backpack, and there he is, flying around. I wanted one.

Found out later that it’s not a jetpack. It’s a Bell Rocket Belt. In the 50s, the Army thought it would be a neat thing for soldiers to have, so they built one for testing. Worked great for about 20 seconds, then the fuel ran out. So much for beating the morning commute.

The Army lost interest, but others haven’t. A handful of kids like me who grew up wanting one have built their own and learned to fly them. Unfortunately, it’s still pretty much a one-of-a-kind deal–custom machines, hand-made. So far, only 12 people in the world have ever flown a rocket belt.

I still think it would be cool to be number 13. Fortunately, so does Bob Steinke, founder of Speedupworld.com, based in Mojave, CA (home of Spaceship One). Bob Steinke gave up writing software for Mars Rovers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to be his own Rocketman. He is designing and hopes to build a Personal Rocketcraft that works like a cross between the Rocketbelt and a motorcycle. Sit atop the hydrogren peroxide fuel tanks and fly around, delivering newspapers or something, hopefully for about 3-5 minutes, a little better than the half a minute you get with the Rocketbelt. Bob Steinke sees the Personal Rocketcraft not so much as something to sell to individuals, but more like something that you would pay to ride, sort of like big-ticket version of bungee jumping.

I love the idea. Here it is, 2006 already. We were supposed to have Moonbases, hotels in orbit, and Pan-Am spaceplanes. None of those promises have come to pass. Even Pan-Am is gone. The LEAST we can get is a Personal Rocketcraft!