Personal Flight

​While a number of inventors have brought the idea of a jetpack closer to reality, personal flight remains a dream for most of us. Boeing has had enough of the dreaming, and is putting up US$2 million in prize money to encourage bright ideas around building an easy-to-use personal flying device.

​Around this time last year, we featured a crazy Swedish multirotor flying machine invented and flown by engineer Alex Borg. At that time, it featured eight petrol-powered rotors, but earlier this year he opted for lots of electric motors. And now the chAIR manned VTOL has taken off.​

British inventor Richard Browning has demonstrated a new personal jetpack-style flight suit with jet turbines on the lower back and arms. The Daedalus suit screams Iron Man to anyone who's watched the movies, but this thing looks brutally difficult to fly.

Only a handful of teams around the globe have safely demonstrated a manned, electric multirotor aircraft, but there's every indication these VTOL Jetsons-mobiles will play a major role in the future transport mix. Here's another example out of the Netherlands - the Sky-Hopper.

Eight petrol-powered heavy duty propellers. One tube lattice frame, a simple seat and a hobby-grade R/C controller wired in. What could possibly go wrong? This Swedish engineer displays a pair of colossal cojones as he puts his home-made flying carpet to the test.

In April, Franky Zapata showed off the Flyboard Air; an impressive personal flight system that quickly started breaking records. Now, US company Implant Sciences has announcing its intention to purchase Zapata Industries.

With a claimed service height quadruple that of the Martin jetpack, a new autonomous, personal VTOL helicopter concept, the Airvinci, is being developed first as a heavy drone, then as a fully-fledged, human-carrying aerial transport system.

This French inventor's new turbine-powered flying platform goes as high as 10,000 feet and flies for up to 10 minutes at a top speed around 150 km/h. Forget your electromagnetic rubbish, this is what we call a real hoverboard.

As we head into a new year with new possibilities, let's take a look at some of the more imaginative vehicle designs that could have a role to play in shaping the future of transport. ​​

A team of students from Singapore has developed a battery electric flying machine named Snowstorm that's being designed for recreational flying. The prototype aircraft boasts 24 electric motors and a single pilot flight time of five minutes.

The dream of personal flight took a great leap forward last week as Jetpack Aviation unveiled its high speed, high altitude, high endurance JB-9 jetpack in spectacular fashion. We talked at length with inventor/pilot David Mayman.

Influential Australian designer Marc Newson has created a jetpack concept dubbed the “Body Jet.”