Jetpack Dreams: One Man's Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was [ペーパーバック]

An interesting book, but it would probably be better as a pop-culture book on jetpacks than a technical study. There are some great pics but little in the way of illustrations as to how this technology works. Plus, many of the descriptions of the oddball people and oddball places get to be kind of annoying as you try to sort out the core of the subject: the jetpack. Still, if this is a subject you're interested in you'll have to get this book. It's the most thorough one I've see thus far and it is certainly up to date.

What assumptions have we made about the future? It is a good question, and one that will be answered differently by each person, but there seems to be a similarity to those assumptions when talking to American males born in the 1950s and 1960s. I am one of them, and we all seem to want to be able to vacation on the Moon and fly to work. For a lot of us, that flying to work would be on a personal jetpack that would free us from the doldrums of terrestrial life. "Where's my jetpack?" seems to be the rallying cry of these individuals, and author Mac Montandon tries to answer it in this enjoyable tour of the inventors trying to make the dream a reality.

Of course, Montandon relates the history of the jetpack; how brilliant engineers at Bell Aerospace led by Wendell Moore in the 1950s came up the concept and made it work, but only for about 30 second before it ran out of fuel. The jetpack, initially thought to be a boon to American G.I.s crossing rivers and the like and therefore receiving Defense Department funding, never proved out and eventually became a stunt valued for all manner of entertainment events. It found its way into Hollywood in such films as James Bond's "Thunderball," the television series "Lost in Space," and by Boba Fett in the original "Star Wars" trilogy. It was also viewed by millions worldwide at the dramatic opening of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

While abandoned as an official project by the military, or anyone else such as NASA, the jetpack lives on in the dreams of hundreds of garage inventors who seek to build their own versions. It is those inventors that Montandon seeks out, literally worldwide, to ascertain the status of "Jetpack Dreams." The answer is that the dream is still a dream, although advocates believe success is attainable with enough investment of time, money, and brainpower. Others are not so sure, commenting that it would require repealing some of the laws of physics to create the necessary lift from such as small energy source. Montandon is an advocate himself and closes the book with a hopeful riff on how some great breakthrough might make the jetpack more than just a dream (or a short term stunt) enabling all of us to change the trajectory of the future. Don't hold your breath, but "Jetpack Dreams" represents an interesting exercise in technological exuberance. It is something we all engage in to some degree. Virtually everyone Montandon interviewed, whether an advocate or not, responded that having a jetpack would be "pretty cool." I agree. I want one as well.

Previous centuries didn't have science fiction as we have had science fiction. We have had descriptions and depictions of the future, from _Metropolis_ to _Flash Gordon_ to _2001_; none of the predictions comes close to what the future actually brought. No one fifty years ago could have expected the scientific and electronic marvels we have now at our fingertips. We have zipped into the future, and it is really quite wonderful, except for one very basic deficiency: "Where's my jetpack?" That's the question that is asked over and over (sometimes with a bit of profanity inserted) by freelance writer Mac Montandon in _Jetpack Dreams: One Man's Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was_ (Da Capo Press). Montandon isn't the only one asking. When Bill Gates was a guest on _The Daily Show_, Jon Stewart did an abrupt change of subject and asked, "When are we going to get jetpacks?" (Gates's answer: "We're not working on that one.") Montandon came of age in the _Star Wars_ era, and "thus was very certain that by no later than the year 2000 we would most definitely be living _in the future_." The future included commuting by jetpack rather than Kias. What happened?

What happened is that imagination betrayed us. Montandon gives one example after another of jetpacks in comics or movies, but points out that the power of each has to do with a fantasy people have had for as long as they have had imaginations: wouldn't it be wonderful if we could fly? A guy with a jetpack is far closer to the fantasy ideal of flight than anyone enclosed within a plane. We got serious about jetpacks in the fifties, when Tom Moore, one of Dr. Wernher Von Braun's circle of engineers and a Buck Rogers fan, got a grant of $25,000 from the Army for this innovative way of moving soldiers. When other engineers got a jetpack that could produce liftoff, test pilots strapped it on, and by the early sixties, reliable, stable flight was being achieved, lasting all of 21 seconds. One of the pilots was Bill Suitor, who became the world's best jetpack pilot. He said flying the gadget was like "standing on a beach ball bobbing in the middle of a swimming pool," but he mastered the art of flying it. It was Suitor who stood in for Sean Connery when James Bond jetpacked in _Thunderball_. He flew it for the opening of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. And this is just about as far as practical jetpacking has come, a show that gets everyone's attention at openings of malls or state fairs - for 21 seconds. It is a toy, not a tool.

That does not make any difference to the countless tinkerers who are trying to make their jetpack dreams into reality. Montandon has a fine time traveling to see these guys all over the globe, and his rollicking prose makes a reader glad to be with him. He was hoping to don a jetpack himself and try it out; he never got closer than that first step. It's the sort of expectation and disappointment that echoes throughout this amusing tour of an idea that (for some) won't go away. Typical of these geeks is 32-year-old Jeremy McGrane of New Hampshire, who tinkers with his good-looking, sleek jetpack invention in his parents' garage. It is a recreation of Wendell Moore's original machine, with improvements, and it has yet to fly. McGrane says, "Most guys are dreaming of alcohol and women - not me. I'm just dreaming about how to make a throttle valve. It's peculiar behavior, I'll admit it, but sometimes I can't sleep at night." Trek Aerospace has a heli-jet that will do a jetpack's business, once a few kinks, like its 370-pound weight and its inability to fly, get worked out. The Skycar similarly has been in development for millions of dollars and 45 years, but doesn't fly. One of the most successful jetpack pioneers is Juan Manuel Lozano, "The Mexican Rocket Man", whom Montandon visits in Mexico City. Unfortunately, Mr. Lozano is immobile in his recliner, recovering from broken ribs and burns; well, just another jetpack that didn't live up to the dream. The dreamers are not always amiable kooks; the tale of the jetpack called "Pretty Bird" from the American Rocketbelt Corporation involves kidnapping, torture, and murder. It is more fun to enjoy with Montandon the first International Rocketbelt Convention, held in 2006 in Niagara Falls, with the slogan, "Where the past meets the present". Montandon is dismayed the there is so much nostalgia (where is the future in that slogan?). One of the old Bell Aerospace pilots sings his song to the conventioneers about the pioneers of the jetpack, and accompanies himself on the ukulele. At the convention store, you can buy a bumpersticker that says, "I'd Rather Be Flying a Rocketbelt". Dream on.