British Tony Stark is one step closer to building a real Iron Man costume. In his jet suit, Richard Browning flew from a boat to the pier in Brighton at a speed of 137 km / h. This is a new world record entered in the Guinness Book of Records. He set the previous one, two years ago, reaching a speed of 51.53 km / h. But the inventor’s plans go much further.
Richard Browning began working on his jetpack in March 2016, in the evenings and on weekends. He assembled and remade existing technologies, tried various combinations until he achieved a stable flight with a jet engine on each leg, and two on his hands. To maintain such loads he was helped by previous training in the corps of the British Royal Marines.
In an interview with the Guinness Book of Records, Browning explains that he has not yet realized the full potential of a jetpack. For example, the flight altitude here, in fact, is not limited. He does not push off from the earth; he does not need to be close to the earth in order to work. On the contrary, the closer you are to the ground, the more difficult it is to control the flight, because you get a lot of turbulence and recirculation from the exhaust. You can fly very high, and when you are far in the sky, there is “clean and beautiful air” around.
The only problem is that if there is any technical malfunction, you do not want to break your ankles, legs and so on. Therefore, we do not fly very high. And I make my records over water.
By the complexity of management, Richard Browning compares his jetpack with Formula 1 cars in the 1930s. Everything is a little crazy, there are no standards, and you have to be physically resilient enough to overcome the technology. Everything, including turns and deceleration, you must do with your body, and you feel it. Power steering and brakes have not yet been invented.
The hardest part to build, according to Richard, was picking the right direction, combination, and position of the engines so that they could provide stable, controlled, and safe traction. The device produces 1050 horsepower, more than a Formula 1 car. Weight - 40 kg, thrust - about 155 kg (if you direct all the engines in the same direction). Jetpack requires four liters of fuel per minute to operate.
Browning costumes in 2019 and 2017
The next Browning plan is to add wings to the device. So that you can rise and soar, covering large distances and practically without burning fuel. It should also allow the car to fly even faster. He says the most difficult thing now is to correctly calculate the mathematics at the moments of transition from aerodynamic surfaces to vector thrust, and make the rise and landing of the “winged” suit quite safe.
Of the applications, it is obvious that the military is primarily interested in such jetpacks. France, for example, is developing its Green Goblin .
But Richard also hopes that technology can be used to save people - for example, when searching for victims in the rubble after earthquakes. He recalls the earthquake in Italy in 2016, when many small villages remained blocked, and there was nowhere for helicopters to land. Fast and maneuverable flying suit now allows you to transport up to two boxes or cases of 25 kg. And in them you can put everything you need for first aid.
