Jetpack Dreaming up North
Good stuff today on the excellent New Hampshire public radio show Word of Mouth. Thanks, Virginia Prescott!
Posted by admin on December 3, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Great Scott!: Pilot Sets New Jetpack Record
Yesterday was a big day for jetpack fans, of course, and also for any and all enthusiasts of the air arts. You may 
have heard about this guy who flew across Colorado’s Royal Gorge—all 1, 500 feet—traveling close to 80 MPH and over 1, 000 feet above the Arkansas River. The video of Go Fast! jetpacker and former Air Force pilot, Eric Scott, zipping over the treacherous chasm has gotten heavy rotation on the world wide web, and for good reason. It is a breathtaking and ballsy stunt. ‘Pack purists will say that Scott was not actually flying a jetpack but a rocket belt, very much like the one Bell engineer Wendell Moore put together in the late 1950s and early 60s. And they are right: Scott’s machine runs on highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide that has been converted into superheated steam and shot out of nozzles with enough force to generate 300 pounds of thrust. No matter how you look at it, though, this was clearly a big moment, a record-setting event even in terms of distance covered, in the ongoing and continually fascinating history of the greatest invention that one day might actually be ours.
Posted by admin on November 24, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Andy Samberg Hearts Jetpacks
It’s true. Scroll down to the Rocket Man entry and behold his adoration. No, really, behold it. There you go. Good. Perhaps not surprisingly, he is also into robots.
Posted by admin on November 23, 2008 at 3:29 pm
How to Build a Jetpack
Turns out, it might not be that hard, after all.
Posted by admin on November 19, 2008 at 9:41 am
The Skyway Report
Good to be back in touch, all you Dreamers. I’ve been on the West Coast with the book and the excellent people of
Portland, the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Here’s the window display from a fantastic downtown San Francisco bookstore called Stacey’s where I read on Monday afternoon. And here’s a clip from a radio interview I did yesterday with WJBC in Bloomington, Illinois. Tonight I’ll be at Book Soup which, when I lived in LA as a youngster, was among my favorite bookstores in town. That’s the quickie update — I’ll try to give a more detailed recap of the trip after I land back in Brooklyn.
Posted by admin on November 13, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Ready for Take Off
It’s only Wednesday, but it’s already been a busy week for all things Jetpack Dream-y. Earlier this week Time 
magazine gave the book a nice review, noting its “lively prose and voluminous research.” The online hub for GQ and Details magazines, men.style.com, chimed in with an excellent review and our favorite jetpack-related headline so far, if only becuase it references early period REM—they were my favorite band when I was a teenager (this was long before they started to, well, not be so good). Last night, the very awesome
Posted by admin on November 7, 2008 at 12:31 pm
On JFK, Jetpacks and This Year’s Election
Yes, there is a relationship between them. To find out what it is, check out this week’s HuffPo item. Meantime, here’s a pretty incredible photo featuring former Bell labs pilot Hal Graham saluting President Kennedy during a 1961 rocket belt demo at Fort Bragg. The Buffalo News reported that, while watching the short exhibition flight, JFK sat “wide eyed and open mouthed —just like a kid.” Jetpacks tend to have that effect on people—even the President of the United States of America.
Posted by admin on November 1, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Anarchy in the (Skies of the) U.K.
The opening scene of Jetpack Dreams takes place inside a Cessna Skyhawk, where I am flying (somewhat 
nervously) several thousand feet over Belfast, Ireland, in a plane piloted by one of the book’s great characters, Will Breaden-Madden. Will is a strangely charming teenage theoretical physics student, dorm-room tinkerer par excellence and is also, perhaps, on the verge of a major jetpack breakthrough with his years-in-the-making ShamRocket. You’ll have to read the book to find out if Will can make it happen but there is no doubt that he has a serious thing for air stunts.
Now comes news of the latest United Kingdom resident with a taste for ambitious airborne maneuvers. Last week a Scottish reporter named Jane Dougall demonstrated her appreciation of super high altitudes—and, dare we say, enormous cajones— by skydiving some 29, 500 feet above the Himalayas. Ms. Dougall jokes that she did it to “annoy the boss,” but there must have been more motivating the first-time diver to risk it all for—okay, yes—what surely is among the most breathtaking views in the world. Here is what she said about the remarkable experience. My favorite part is when she admits that she would “absolutely not” do it again. Maybe she isn’t so crazy, after all.
Posted by admin on October 30, 2008 at 11:59 am
Charm City Landing
One summer, between my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I practically lived at my friend 
Jeremy’s house in a suburb outside of Baltimore. Jeremy had a fantastic attic room, removed from the rest of the house, which made it perfect for listening to David Bowie deep into the night, sneaking cigarettes and trying to make out with girls. His house was also near a busy bus line that could take us into downtown in about 25 minutes or so. We’d hop on and blab too loudly about the latest high school insanities. Soon enough we were standing on Charles Street and the world—or at least the local art movie theater and the café that notoriously served minors booze—was our oyster. Some times, but not that often, we’d wander farther afield and wind up at the tourist magnet known as the Inner Harbor. (Side note: I once worked on a cruise ship at the harbor for all of one night—when I found myself lugging garbage off the vessel at 3 a.m. my resolve melted. And Jer put in more time at a Harbor Place store that I’m pretty sure was called “All Things Crabs!” or something equally charming. He looked great in the crabby apron all employees had to wear).
The Inner Harbor was good for the occasional cheap meal—a cup of Thrasher’s fries drenched in vinegar really stuck to your ribs—and for mocking the juggling clowns busking near the water’s edge, one of several rhetorical skills at which Jeremy excelled. Why am I telling you all this? Because on Nov. 19 I’ll be reading from Jetpack Dreams at the Barnes & Noble at the Inner Harbor and it is just delightful and amazing to me to think about returning to the scene of so many misspent youthful hours, all these years later. If you are in the area or are currently a resident of Charm City, I’d love to see you there—and if Thrasher’s is still in business, the fries are on me.
Posted by admin on October 16, 2008 at 9:00 am
Channel Surfing
Not all aircraft, it seems, are quite ready to make like Yves Rossy and hop the English Channel. This pedal-powered blimp, for instance, still needs some tweaking. 
Posted by admin on October 2, 2008 at 10:32 am
