Science fiction has become reality in Suffolk - after the creator of a jet suit put it through its paces at a former airbase in the county,
Richard Browning, creator of the ‘Iron Man’ style suit, recently visited Bentwaters Park near Woodbridge to provide flight training for a client who has bought one of the £340,000 suits.
Nine customers have so far purchased personalised versions of the suits, along with a crash-course on how to fly.
Now, Mr Browning has set his sights on transforming the suit into a competitive sport.
The former commodities trader, who first developed the suit in his garage with friends, said he would launch a new racing series over water next year, featuring athletes from different sporting backgrounds as contestants.
“The idea of ... a race around a kind of air race circuit, in three dimensions with 1,000 horse-power jet suits, it’s going to be astounding and phenomenal,” Mr Browning told Reuters.
After the latest test session, Mr Browning offered a “warm thanks” to the crew at Bentwaters who he said were “absolutely brilliant” together with the Everett family, and The Ship at Blaxhall for their assistance.
Gravity Industries, the company behind the suit, said it“augments the body and mind with a suite of patent pending technology to enable unparalleled human flight”.
Launched in March 2017, to “reimagine human flight” with a partnership between “mind, body and machine”, the suit is said to have exploited leading edge technology.
The suit works using five gas turbine jet engines, which generate 1050bhp and 144kg of thrust to allow vertical lift and ultimately human propulsion. Directional flight control is achieved by vectoring the arm engine thrust. The Jet Suit runs on Diesel, Kerosene or Jet Fuel.
There are currently five of the suits in existence. They can achieve flight time of up to eight minutes and a top speed of more than 60kmh
At the 2018 Bournemouth Air Festival, Gravity Industries director of flight training, Angelo Grubisic broke the jet suit speed record by flying at 74kmph following the Guinness World Record we set in November 2017 of 51.3 kmph.
Mr Browning was also able to fly the longest distance of 1.4km - which is further than a Gravity Industries Jet Suit Pilot had ever flown before.
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