Aircraft

Video: Richard Browning sets new speed record in Iron Man-style jet suit

Video: Richard Browning sets new speed record in Iron Man-style jet suit
Gravity founder Richard Browning has just set the Guinness World Record for "fastest speed in a body controlled, jet engine powered suit"
Gravity founder Richard Browning has just set the Guinness World Record for "fastest speed in a body controlled, jet engine powered suit"
View 13 Images
Richard Browning flies his Daedalus suit
1/13
Richard Browning flies his Daedalus suit
Richard Browning demonstrates his flight suit
2/13
Richard Browning demonstrates his flight suit
The Daedalus suit takes incredible upper body strength and endurance to control
3/13
The Daedalus suit takes incredible upper body strength and endurance to control
Richard Browning, a new Guinness World Record holder
4/13
Richard Browning, a new Guinness World Record holder
Daedalus suit by Gravity: pushing down with the arms to control the suit takes incredible strength
5/13
Daedalus suit by Gravity: pushing down with the arms to control the suit takes incredible strength
Richard Browning's Daedalus jet flight suit: jet thrusters on the arms help control direction
6/13
Richard Browning's Daedalus jet flight suit: jet thrusters on the arms help control direction
Richard Browning flies the Daedalus Suit
7/13
Richard Browning flies the Daedalus Suit
Gravity founder Richard Browning demonstrates the Daedalus flight suit
8/13
Gravity founder Richard Browning demonstrates the Daedalus flight suit
Gravity founder Richard Browning celebrates his Guinness World Record
9/13
Gravity founder Richard Browning celebrates his Guinness World Record
Gravity founder Richard Browning skims the surface of the water as he makes his world record speed attempt
10/13
Gravity founder Richard Browning skims the surface of the water as he makes his world record speed attempt
Gravity founder Richard Browning in the Daedalus jet flight suit
11/13
Gravity founder Richard Browning in the Daedalus jet flight suit
Richard Browning wrestles the Daedalus flight suit in a world record attempt
12/13
Richard Browning wrestles the Daedalus flight suit in a world record attempt
Gravity founder Richard Browning has just set the Guinness World Record for "fastest speed in a body controlled, jet engine powered suit"
13/13
Gravity founder Richard Browning has just set the Guinness World Record for "fastest speed in a body controlled, jet engine powered suit"
View gallery - 13 images

Remember Richard Browning, the UK-based fitness freak who built himself an Iron Man-style flight suit, complete with jet thrusters on his arms and back? A suit that required absolutely incredible upper body strength to manage, since you're constantly pushing down against the thrust with your arms? Well, he's just muscled his way into the Guinness Book of Records for the incredibly specific "fastest speed in a body controlled jet engine powered suit" record.

The record attempt took place over a lake at Lagoona Park, in Reading, UK. Browning fired up the suit and took three attempts, with the speed being maintained over a minimum distance of 100 meters. Browning had to beat the mark of 30 mph (48 km/h) to set the record, which he did on the third run, clocking 32.02 mph (51.5 km/h) before tumbling into the water.

Richard Browning wrestles the Daedalus flight suit in a world record attempt
Richard Browning wrestles the Daedalus flight suit in a world record attempt

We couldn't dig up exactly what previous record he was trying to break here; searching the Guinness World Records database brings up the "Fastest speed in a body controlled jet engine powered suit" record, but says there's "no current record holder for this title."

If you then click through to apply for the record, it tells you "The current record is 40 mile(s) per hour." So maybe it's some kind of placeholder thing. Which makes it odd that Browning got the record at 32 mph, and that it was decided at some point that he'd have to beat an equally arbitrary figure of 30 mph to get the record. It's all a bit wacky.

Richard Browning flies his Daedalus suit
Richard Browning flies his Daedalus suit

Nonetheless, Browning skimming along the surface of the water at 32 mph still looks pretty hairy. There's no doubt in my mind this was a fairly terrifying experience. So, all questions about the Guinness process aside, this is still a very cool achievement.

We'd love to see our good buddy David Mayman take a stab at a speed record with his JB-series jetpacks, as well as Franky Zapata with his Flyboard Air. Both these devices are controlled differently to the way Browning's suit is, so they might fall into their own record categories, but as far as we're concerned, the further and faster these wild men fly on their incredible devices, wrenched from the pages of science fiction and into reality, the better we are as a species for their efforts.

Check out the video of Browning's record attempt below.

Real life Iron Man sets new flight speed record - Guinness World Records Day

Source: Guinness World Records

View gallery - 13 images
3 comments
3 comments
Paul Anthony
It seems to me that if he had some sort of a skeleton that these thrusters attached to that he could take a lot of the strain off of his muscles and still have movement and control.
ljaques
Why wasn't he able to go a bit higher so he could turn some of that thrust into a wee bit faster speed, y'know, like 320mph? Not enough thrust or shoulder muscle? Those things would do a number on your rotator cuff.
don91
Not really flying, but hovering using the ground effect. So a different class of suit compared to the other jetpack guys.