Design Spotlight: Body Jet by Marc Newson

After adding his distinctive touch to typical consumer products like the Pentax K-01, Australian designer Marc Newson has now made the logical leap to… jetpacks? That’s right.

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After adding his distinctive touch to typical consumer products like the Pentax K-01, Australian designer Marc Newson has now made the logical leap to… jetpacks? Actually, it’s the other way around. The project technically dates back to 2010 and was done at the request of a small French aerospace component company interested — like every other red-blooded dude on earth — in the possibilities of jetbacks.

Newson’s resulting Body Jet is made from a carbon fiber shell and features all of the elements you’d need to make strapping a rocket to your back even remotely feasible: landing gear that retracts during flight, gyroscopic controls for steering and safety straps (…fine). Details on key components like the explosion propulsion system are thinner than a Te’o duping story, but we do know that it’s designed with a range of between 45 and 60 minutes of flight time and designated for landing pads, just like a helicopter. Given how long it’s lolled around as a concept, your rocketeer dreams aren’t coming true anytime soon (that applies to dating Jennifer Connelly too), but it did inspire Newson enough to create an areospace subsidiary.