flight

[sushi]

why is individual human flight technology impossible

what obstacles do we have to overcome?

will we have flight suits like iron man

 

[Cognisant]

Gravity Industries

Gravity Flight Club – Join the Jet Suit community making human flight a reality. Experience first hand the ultimate freedom of true flight.

gravity.co

My critique of this design is that it relies partially on the pilot's arm strength and if one of those jets fail he's going to have a very complicated landing.

Below is the more conventional gimbal-backpack design which is arguably safer albeit less maneuverable.

will we have flight suits like iron man

Ironman's suit has no air intakes, so he much be using some kind of rocket propulsion, but there's also no fuel tanks so apparently he has some kind of magical zero reaction mass rocket technology.

Maybe he's using some kind of super advanced ion-aero propulsion whereby his arc reactor pulse emitter thingabobs are turning the air to plasma and then using the conductivity of that plasma to ionize and redirect a large volume of air around him, this would explain how he's able to take off without blasting holes in the ground, setting everything on fire and deafening everyone around him.

Spoiler: Ion-Aero Propulsion

I don't imagine this kind of ion propulsion will be viable in our lifetime, however if we colonize Mars or build space habitats then reduced gravity will make any kind of flight much more effective, even now people aboard the ISS can use handheld electric fans to blow themselves around. On Mars where the gravity is only 0.375 that of Earth gravity one of the jet packs above would effectively have twice the thrust to weight ratio so you could either downsize the jetpack or zoom around like Ironman. Assuming you're in a dome with an Earth pressure atmosphere, in the thinner martian atmosphere it may be difficult to even take off.

 

[scorpiomover]

why is individual human flight technology impossible

Not impossible. Birds have flight technology. Millions of birds fly thousands of miles every year, crossing entire continents. Humans evolved to walk & run on land, climb trees, and swim on water.

It's like complaining that a can that does over 70mph and is optimised for over 7-MPG, can't fly into space like a space shuttle, when each flight of a space shuttle costs millions of dollars.

what obstacles do we have to overcome?

Making personal jet-packs or anti-gravity devices.
Dealing with the exhaust and radiation from said jet packs and anti-gravity devices.
Dealing with the pollution caused by them.

Making tiny battery packs that can store incredible amounts of energy.
Making the battery packs not occasionally explode.
Dealing with the pollution caused by making said battery packs, and the pollution caused by the remains of used/burned-out battery packs.

Developing energy sources to charge the battery packs, and dealing with the pollution caused by them.

Developing a high-quality air traffic control system that handles billions of humans flying around at high speeds, 99.9% of which would have little to no flight training, and safety measures that ensure they don't run into each other.

Traffic.

Protecting people from falling out of the sky when their power source runs out.

Rain. Snow.

Getting caught in hurricanes and tsunamis.

People getting drunk, or showing off to their girlfriends, or schizophrenics having an attack, or epileptics having a fit, while flying, and doing things that are extremely dangerous to themselves and/or others.

People losing their jobs to people who have jet packs.

Girls only dating men with jetpacks.

Guys with jetpacks saying that women who date them are only interested in them for their jetpacks.

Guys with jetpacks treating women who would date them as 'low-hanging fruit'.

Young men having depression and anxiety because they now think they're not good enough to get a girlfriend, because they don't have a jetpack, while all the players have jetpacks.

People suffering from flight-pack anxiety.

Flight pack manufacturers getting sued.

Social media complaining that flight packs are making the skies unfriendly.

will we have flight suits like iron man

When will we have suits that will allow humans to swim underwater like Aquaman?

 

[birdsnestfern]

In dreams, I have rubber bounce like feet. I jump once, I'm 4 feet off the ground, twice, I'm 10 feet up, after three jumps, I'm up at tree top level and can float and fly. So, at least in dreamland, the secret is in the shoes/high jumps. After that, maybe there is a belly pack you can control from the front for directional changes, or by tilting yourself slightly. Legs are like Pogo sticks that motility starts it off. Could be something like hot air balloon or helium. You also can nose dive straight back to earth if you dare and it will stop you 10 inches from the ground so you can't get injured. Combination hover board magnetics and helium and hydraullics.

 

[Hourglass]

why is individual human flight technology impossible

what obstacles do we have to overcome?

will we have flight suits like iron man

Wait, so you mean you don’t have a private jet plane and a license to fly?

 

[ZenRaiden]

There are several different technologies.
Apart from jetpacks there are also drones that can lift people in air and cover relatively short distance in very fast time.

The issue with this flight technology is safety really.
If you fall down you are liable to cause a traffic accident and kill people on the ground.
IF you fly into electric cables you are liable to cause power outage and fry yourself.
If you fly low you are liable to break someones neck.
If you fly wrong you are liable to hit someone flying in different direction.
If you fly wrong you are liable to hit a building like a skyscraper or apartment building.
Wind and weather conditions can make such flight dangerous and impossible.
You need a safe landing zone and make sure that while you land you don't land on someones car or head.
If you lose focus you are liable to cause an accident.

Many people still drive under influence and don't follow basic instructions for traffic regulation. It means the rules for flight have to be 100 times more strict than what we have in normal traffic.
Some people cannot even master driving.
Imagine mastering flight paths in 3D space where there are 100s of others flying in all directions.
Never mind the fact you can hit a balloon or helicopter or a plane and cause massive accident that will kill dozens if not 100s of people by making a split second wrong decisions, just because you lost focus for a brief moment.

There are also antennas and birds that are hard to see, but if you hit them you are dead.

Also wind conditions up in air are less predictable.
Have you ever heard of turbulence.
Do you want to be strapped to a rocket and experience turbulence?

My best guess is that such technology will be useful over water, sea, and deserts or used ad hoc to overcome mountains or mountain ranges. That is if the technology is resistant to sheers and small turbulent swings of air.
It will have limited use in urban ares, but might be used as survey technology or utility for checking and fixing buildings or windmills or accessing in accessible.
It might also be used as emergency rescue system both in fires and medical emergencies, saving people at sea, or mountains.
It will be also very useful for military applications giving special mobility to unique units with unique weapons.

It is however necessary to develop these platforms to be safe, capable of withstanding winds and improving reliability.

 

[ZenRaiden]