Fantastic! But given that this looks more like the classic rocket-pack I suspect it will still only have a few minutes flight time. I believe there are a few mathematical limits on the amount of thrust/lift that can be generated per unit of available chemical energy in the fuel. If you try to carry more fuel to fly longer you need yet more fuel to lift that fuel, and so on. This has always been the limitation. The more stripped down the device becomes the shorter the flight can be. Rockets typically carry their own oxidant as well as their own fuel. IC engines burn fuel in air from outside the device. As I understand it rockets are also not particularly efficient, and not as efficient as ICE driven propellors. That's why we have prop and jet planes rather than rocket planes. To fly for a useful period you need a fairly big device. And given that all fuels have a fairly fixed energy content the fuel efficiency to lift ratio of the device becomes the limiting factor. Even the MJP can only carry fuel for around 30-40 minutes flying I believe. To carry more fuel you need to ditch other weight - as in ditching the pilot in the unmanned version. This physics has been, and will continue to be, the name of the game for the MJP. Hence the attractiveness of KCS meta-materials.
So while this looks great it may not be practically as useful as the MJP. Like the older rocket packs its use will be confined to movies etc where it only has to look good for a few seconds of footage.
Fantastic! But given that this looks more like the classic...
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