IF YOU’RE FROM Dublin and found yourself near the Liffey earlier today you would have been treated to an unusual sight.
A man was flying above the river using a jet-pack.
A full-on, science fiction jet-pack.
The hydrogen-peroxide powered devices was flown by Jet-Pack Man (or Nick Macomber to his mother).
The US stuntman has been flying jet-packs for the past four years and explained to TheJournal.ie that he had been studying engineering in San Diego when he started working with an aviation enthusiast as a side job.
It so happened that this individual was working on jet-packs as part of a project, giving Macomber the chance to fly one.
Macomber explained that he had managed to become a jet-pack pilot by being “dumb enough to fly it and smart enough to figure it out”.
Back when he got his start doing it four years ago more people had walked on the moon than flown jet-packs, Macomber explained.
While the technology for the jet-packs has been in place since the 1960s, it is only in the last 10 years that it has begun to develop.
The duration of today’s flight came in at only 28 seconds, something that Jetpack International, the company that builds them, hopes to improve with its next generation of models.
As Macomber explains:
We’re developing a new piece of technology that could change the world and could give flight to a lot more people.
The reason this took place in Dublin today was thanks to a PR push by Samsung to market its new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphone.
As part of the promotional efforts Macomber will be flying at a number of locations around Ireland.
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