Remember when you were a kid playing outside and mom called out that it was time for lunch? You leapt up and fired on all cylinders to get home so as not to miss out on your meal or spark mom's ire. Pro skier Filip Flisar recently took this concept to the next level, racing over snowy streets propelled by a jetpack. Needless to say, he made it home in time for his midday meal.
In the latest Red Bull stunt and viral-bound video, the famously mustachioed Flisar is sitting around enjoying the company of fellow snow hounds when his mom calls up to let him know in no uncertain terms that lunch is almost ready. Flisar frantically straps into his handy jetpack and relies on its 88 lb (40 kg) of thrust to send him speeding up to 75 mph (120 km/h), uphill, downhill, over streets, down stairs and across football fields and frozen water, in his hometown of Maribor, Slovenia. He even throws in some impressive cornering.
The jetpack in question was built in response to an Instagram challenge, and Flisar first used it last year to thrust around the snow of Slovenia's Pokljuka Plateau. Flisar developed the hot-firing jet-turbine backpack with help from a technician, and according to Red Bull, it runs at up to 96,000 rpm and reaches scorching temperatures of 1,562° F (850° C). It looks easier to ski with than a handheld thruster and, from what we've seen, is faster on the snow.
We've seen plenty of air stunts with jetpacks, most famously those of "Jetman" Yves Rossy and his jet wing, and some impressive on-water jet action, but not so much land jetpacking. Flisar's pioneering work in this area is quite impressive and his agility in this latest video is nothing to scoff at.
"Skiing fast with a jetpack in an open field is one thing. Blasting your way across asphalt, granite sets and icy concrete in the middle of main square proved to be a totally different story," he said of the experience.
We've dropped the video below.
Source: Red Bull