Jutte wrote:Just saw your picture of your jet pack!
Woohoo - Bruno...really loud, really dangerous...can I have first go?
Hahahahaha... Sure. The technology is simple and existing; nothing very adventurous. Just two big pulsejets blowing into a common torus, so that, if one quits, the thrust falls but does not disappear -- and, very important, remains symmetrical. If you don't trust pulsejets, or can't abide by their noise, use two small turbojets instead.
Here's a sketch of the layout. The pulsejets are fed by a common toroidal intake manifold and are feeding a common toroidal thrust augmenter (or whatever you may care to call it). The 'augmenter' has two jet exhausts that end in rotating nozzles that aim the thrust downwards (lift), or backwards (forward thrust), forwards (reverse thrust) or wherever you want them to point. Turn them in opposed directions and you get yaw.
Everything is packaged inside a streamlined carbon-fiber cocoon. What the pilot carries on his back is actually just a fuel tank. Everything else is in that cocoon perched on top. I ws optimistic in terms of size when I drew the first sketch (the pilot with the flying machine). I guess everything would actually be perhaps 50 percent bigger.
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